A short, fact-checked history of the American Christmas tree
Christmas tree history is full of stories that improve with each retelling. Below, the documented record, with the popular myths labeled as myths. Every date links to its source.
Timeline
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1777 / 1816 | Windsor Locks, CT and Easton, PA both claim America's first Christmas tree (a Hessian soldier's tree; German settlers' tree). Neither claim has contemporary evidence; the Connecticut account first appears in print in 1955. [source] |
| 1821 | The earliest documented US Christmas tree: Matthew Zahm of Lancaster, PA records one in his diary. [source] |
| 1851 | The first retail tree lot: Catskills woodsman Mark Carr hauls two ox-sleds of firs and spruces to Manhattan's Washington Market, pays $1 for the sidewalk spot, and sells out. By 1880 the same spot rents for $100. [source] |
| 1882–83 | Earliest US artificial-tree patent (August Wengenroth, Troy, NY, 1882); around 1883 Sears offers artificial trees: 33 limbs for $0.50, 55 limbs for $1. [source] |
| 1889 | First well-documented White House indoor tree, under Benjamin Harrison. [source] |
| 1901 | The first Christmas tree farm: W.V. McGalliard plants 25,000 Norway spruce in White Horse, NJ; the first trees sell around 1907–08 at $1 apiece. [source] |
| 1902 | Myth, debunked: Teddy Roosevelt did not "ban" Christmas trees for conservation. The White House Historical Association calls the ban a myth; the family simply had no tree custom. What is documented: his son Archie hid a small decorated tree in a closet, and the president let it stand. [source] |
| 1923 | First National Christmas Tree lighting: President Coolidge lights a 48-ft balsam fir from Vermont on the Ellipse, Dec 24. Every president since has taken part. [source] |
| 1931 | First Rockefeller Center tree: Depression-era construction workers pool wages for a 20-ft balsam fir decorated with cranberry strings and tinfoil from blasting caps. [source] |
| 1940s–50s | Through the late 1940s about 90% of US trees are still cut wild in forests. After WWII, plantation farming and shearing spread; today ~98% of real trees come from farms. [source] |
| 1950 | The world record: a 212-ft Douglas fir erected at Northgate Shopping Center, Seattle: still the tallest cut Christmas tree ever (the often-quoted "221 ft" is a misprint that survived decades). [source] |
| 1966 | NCTA Grand Champion growers begin presenting the official Blue Room tree to the First Lady: a tradition that continues today. [source] |
The White House Blue Room tree
Since 1966 the official White House tree has come from the winner of the National Christmas Tree Association's national contest: growers win state contests to qualify, and the Grand Champion earns the presentation to the First Lady. Recent trees: North Carolina Fraser firs in 2021, 2023 and 2024 (Peak Farms; Cline Church Nursery; Cartner Christmas Tree Farm), and in 2025 an 18-ft concolor fir from Korson's Tree Farms, Michigan: the first Michigan tree since 1985.
Sources: NCTA White House tree page · Detroit News, 2025
The Rockefeller Center tree
- Species: a Norway spruce, by tradition and by the selection criteria (at least ~65–70 ft tall, 35–42 ft wide).
- Displayed trees run about 69–100 ft; the tallest was a 100-ft spruce from Killingworth, CT in 1999. The 2025 tree is a 75-ft spruce from East Greenbush, NY, lit by about 50,000 LEDs.
- After the season the tree is milled into lumber and donated to Habitat for Humanity.
Sources: Rockefeller Center · NBC New York
One more myth worth killing
The "toilet brush company invented the artificial tree in 1930" story is false. Hagley Museum researchers found no US "Addis Brush Company" and no such patents; brush-bristle trees actually came from American Brush Machinery Co. of Mount Vernon, NY in the 1950s, later scaled by machinist Si Spiegel to ~800,000 trees a year. [source]