Christmas History
The concept of the artificial Christmas tree has been around for a few centuries as much as the true triumphant return of Christmas as a concept. Thankfully, this post is not about real vs. artificial Christmas which a debate created to divide us.
Artificial Christmas trees have been made of different materials over time such as feathers, most now are made of PVC plastic. We are going to talk about a very specific kind of treat, the aluminum tree.
You are sitting and watching "A Charlie Brown Christmas" which was made in 1965, and something odd is mentioned: that being an aluminum Christmas tree, you sit there puzzled and wonder "is that some weird joke? Christmas trees made of metal?"
These metallic trees were real and they existed. (redundant to make a point) They were the first artificial trees to not be sold in green, which is interesting since you can get artificial trees in any color you want. (Like red to make you think it's on fire!) They were first introduced in 1955. They were popular in the 1960's (because the 1960's were weird, this is going to offend someone) The trees were made of aluminum and some were aluminum coated paper which if you do math, is not the best idea.
So the legendary idea and concept, the theme of this post, is that "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was the murderer of these popular trees. In 1964, Evergleam and others were riding high, the future was here!
The 1960's are also a messy decade, going with American History, 1965, you already had a president assassinated, a nation mourning before Christmas 1963, the Vietnam war was starting, and things felt messy and turmoil was about. (uhh) One of the themes of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" the main theme, is that Christmas has been to commercialized (ironic it ran with Coke sponsoring it) and that people were forgetting what Christmas was about.
The thing about Peanuts was its way of being contemporary and timeless at the same time. "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and the way it looked, felt, and was written was like a rejection of modern times. Compared to the swish, modern, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer "special, (This isn't a knock on Rudolph) and the modern , cool times, Charlie Brown's Christmas was quiet. No big song numbers, nothing about Santa coming, it's music is jazz. It's animation was rushed, and sometimes stilted by the rush process. It has children reading lines, no famous people to sing or speak in it. Charlie Brown , the character, rejects the modern times, while wondering what's missing.
Charlie Brown gets a wooden tree, which Linus remarks about them still making them. Like a slight joke mocking the fact that do people still get a regular tree anymore? Thought, does that mean that this special with it's popularity from airing killed the trees off?
That's harder to prove, it's more a story that gets passed around and people tend to go "yeah that makes sense." I have to also go with well something boring: markets. Supply and demand. These trees were made to last longer than say a tree you cut down and bring in; if you bought one, did you need to buy another one , the next year? (Unless your house burned down, then actually, you shouldn't buy another death tree) Evergleam was producing tons of the things and kind of over did it: too much supply, and killed the demand.
Take top the top pop single of 1964, which is "I want to hold your hand" by the Beatles(according to the the Billboard chart Hot 100) which was already showing a change of music trends versus 1960 and "Theme from a Summer Place" by Percy Faith. Tastes were changing in music these trees were more attractive to a younger set in the first place. By the time Charlie Brown aired, tastes were changing.
That doesn't mean Charlie Brown didn't change anything, it might have made some feel nostalgic about Christmas of the past, getting back to roots, especially as modern times feel like they suck. (a mostly evergreen, ha, statement) Here's the more the more interesting thing, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" outlasted the popularity of the trees, maybe by not being modern and going on the current trends as cool. The idea that Christmas feels too commercial, too over the top, too much is timeless. You can replace the aluminum tree with any current trend and see how well it fits.
I don't think this special, the accused, your honor, the jury, is the murderer, the killer, the assassin; I think it was that it clicked in the right time of a death of a trend was coming. There are other factors. Also, going back to these trees could also be death traps, and later better manufacturing of better artificial non death trap trees might have also helped in the trend change for those who wanted non-real trees.
Sources:
Anyway, that's my thought. Thanks for reading. Next time, how Charlie Brown killed Thanksgiving turkey with popcorn.
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