A few evenings ago we attended a Christmas party and everyone was given candy cane with a question on it. I’m not sure it was necessary, but the questions were intended to be “conversation starters.” The questions were all related to Christmas — and someone standing next to me got the question, “Who, in your household, gets to put the star on top of the tree?” I’m pretty sure that this question never got answered, but it did start a conversation about Christmas trees and decorations.
The answer to the original question, in our house, would be — nobody! At the party, there was a discussion as to what was the most popular “topping” for a Christmas tree. The consensus was that a star was the most popular.
Every year we put up four Christmas trees at our house — none of them have a star on top. Since we’ve been married, I don’t ever remember having a star on top of any of our trees.
Well, of course, this all got me to thinking… I couldn’t find any statistics that pointed to any one type of ornament being dominant for adorning the top of the tree. It appears that originally many/most people used the infant Jesus to top their trees. Over the years, the trend evolved to either a star or an angel, both being a (Christian) symbol in the Nativity of Jesus. The Star of Bethlehem is a five-pointed star that guided the Wise Men to the place of Jesus’ birth. The angel Gabriel visited Mary to inform her that she was to give birth to the Son of God.
The oldest “tree topper” we have is ball with fiber-optic strands — these things were popular in the early seventies. The other trees are topped with angles and Father Christmas — no stars.
I seem to remember when I was very young that we had a star on our Christmas tree… but that was a lot of years ago. I guess I’m going to have to start paying more attention as to what people put on their trees. Maybe I’ll do some extensive research and report the findings here next year… Merry Christmas!
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