Christmas trees, originally a German custom, became popular when German immigrants came to America, and when Queen Victoria’s German husband, Prince Albert, put up Christmas trees for the royal family. Over time, the fad led to a shortage of fresh trees in Germany, and people began making artificial trees out of feathers. In the US, the reason we started using artificial trees was that a real Christmas tree festooned with candles or hot incandescent lights was liable to burn the house down.
Listen beautiful relax classics on our Youtube channel.
Quite a few people tried designing a Christmas tree that wouldn’t catch fire, but they didn’t look much like the real thing. And then a brush company that made everything from toothbrushes to toilet brushes got involved. The same technology that produced toilet brushes made artificial trees look fluffy enough. So we can thank toilet brushes for the look of our modern Christmas trees. Read how all this came about, including some odd failed patents, at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: SeppVei)
Source: neatorama