"Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree your branches green delight us.

"Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas your branches green delight us.

"They're green when summer days are bright, there green when winter snow is white...'' There's nothing like walking into your home and having the pine fragrance of your Christmas tree waft through the air, surrounding and reminding you of the holidays.

To most people, the best part of Christmas is picking out the tree and decorating it. But do you ever wonder why it is that we have a tree standing in our homes at Christmas time? Legend has it -- according to Readers Digest -- the reason we have Christmas trees is because in ages past a child seeking shelter on a bitter winter's night knocked at a forest hut: "A woodcutter and his wife took in the child and fed him. Overnight, the boy turned into an angel - the Christ child - dressed in gold.

"As a reward for the couple's kindness, the child broke a twig from the fir tree and told them to plant it, promising that each Christmas it would bear fruit.

"And so it did, a crop of golden apples and silver nuts, the first Christmas tree.'' Of all the symbols of Christmas -- so the story goes -- nothing expresses the magic of season more fully than a fir tree ablaze with light, shimmering with frost and crowned with a star.

The custom has since become popular worldwide.

"Originating in Germany, the Christmas tree spread overseas during the nineteenth century. The custom's growth in popularity was sometimes boosted by royalty.

"In Britain for example, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, had a tree sent from his native Germany in 1841 for the family celebration at Windsor Castle. Before long, the now-familiar sight of giant Christmas trees in public places and more modest ones in shops and homes was widespread.

Years ago, before the blight, Bermudians adopted the endemic cedar in place of the traditional pine. Older Bermudians remember the days when they could wander into a cedar forest to tag their own Island version of the Christmas tree.

Corporation of Hamilton alderman Lawson Mapp said from early school days, when he attended Elliott School, there were lots of cedar trees.

"You couldn't go into a shop and buy Christmas trees; you had to go and select one from what we called the Golf Links, now Ocean View Golf Course,'' Mr. Mapp said.

He added: "There were masses of cedar trees; that was in the 40's and we would go out during our lunch hour and stake out a tree. We would look for the best one with the best centre -- the centre part had the lovely design.

"After staking your tree out, you would come back over the weekend with a saw and cut the tree down and lug it home. If you did that today you would be put in jail.'' Mr. Mapp said this took place a week prior to Christmas "the spirit didn't start as early as it does now.

"On Christmas Eve I would get a piece of 2x4 -- we couldn't buy stands in those days -- and I would cut it and make it into a cross shape and then take a large nail and stake the nail in the centre of the wood right up into the tree.

"Then we would decorate it with garland and angel hair. When you got it on your hands it would itch, but when the lights shone on it, it was lovely. We would also put an angel at the top and then when we were finished we would spray the tree with aerosol (artificial) snow.'' Now people buy different decorations from year to year, says Mr. Mapp, "but in those days we didn't do that, we packed it away every year and brought it out. We would put down a red cloth or Christmas paper so you wouldn't see the cross stand.'' "To decorate we also used Mexican pepper because it looked like Christmas holly. Those days were a lot of fun.'' Head librarian Grace Rawlins has fond memories of "going through the land'' to choose a cedar Christmas tree: "I remember going with my father to select the tree,'' she recalls.

"This happened maybe a month before Christmas. We would put a special mark on the tree so we could find it.'' "We never would get the tree before Christmas Eve. Not many people had stands so we would stand the tree up in a bucket of sand.

"We also always had a star at the top. Decorations were very delicate, I still have some decorations from my childhood, some were hand painted.'' Ms. Rawlins said she found getting and decorating the tree very exciting: "This was when you knew Christmas was really here -- when you went out to cut down the tree, and the house would smell so fragrant with cedar.

"We didn't buy tree skirts, we would use a sheet under the tree, I guess we were recycling before we even knew it.'' Principal and author Dale Butler remembers decorating Christmas trees as "a grand family occasion.'' "Every ball had to be in the exact place; every piece of tinsel, every decoration.

"We also had any type of ornaments, whether they be skeletons, or knick knacks, but it was one of the most beautiful trees I have ever seen. We didn't have those little lights either, we had what they now call outside lights.'' Mr. Butler said his house was always filled with music during the holidays.

"Not only did we play Handel's Messiah, we had to sing it along with Harry Belafonte and other African songs.

"When I went to university no one in the family wanted to take the tree down until I saw it and that tree stayed up until August and it remained green until it was put outside. They (my family) wanted me to see it and take it down.

"Years later I discovered Mr. Cecil Hendrickson -- the bar keeper of Albert's Bar, now Hubie's -- had a real fir Christmas tree that he kept for 15 years, and that tree was put up every year.

"There seemed to be a neighbourhood tradition of people keeping their trees up way past Christmas.''