Evergreens have long been a symbol of life everlasting and the fir tree was especially popular with the European religions. Christmas trees were seen by the early 1600s and they were widespread throughout Germany by the mid-1800s. Prince Albert introduced the Christmas tree to England in 1841, the same year they appeared in Paris. The words and music to "O Tannenbaum" are anonymous and date to the sixteenth century or seventeenth century. "Deck the Halls" is a tune of Welsh origin that was first found in print in 1784 in a collection entitled, Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards. The lyrics, possibly American, were first printed in 1881 in New York in The Franklin Square Song Collection. Bob - hammered dulcimer.
