I've heard that the christmas tree symbol stemmed from pagan traditions of sacrificing children under such trees. But that is not what we associate it with nowadays.
Martin Luther started it in the 1500s because he liked the way stars shone into the pine forest at night and wanted to use it to explain the light of Christ to his children. The tradition moved to England circa 1840.
I heard that it originally came from ancient times, when people feared that the sun would gradually disappear in the winter and the world would end. They would fill their homes with the branches of the pine, which stayed green even in the winter, and celebrate on the solstice to convince the gods to bring back the sun and life to the earth for one more year.
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