Archpriest Vladimir Golovin The Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree is for a reason. Only Christians put up Christmas trees not for New Year's Eve, but for Christmas.Why is that? It's an evergreen tree. Winter is all about death, and it's green. For us, it's a symbol of eternal life that Christ has brought into the world. To us, it is like an icon, a reminder of the eternity that Christ gave us.

When Christ was born, gifts were brought to Him by the Magi. The church sings that it is not only the magi who give Him gifts on this day. If you will be at the Christmas service, listen, there will be such a chant that on this day heaven gives Him a star, earth gives Him a cave, shepherds give Him worship, magi gives Him gifts. And in fact, it was He who gave to us, not us. He gave us eternal life, His mercy, love, forgiveness and so on.

Knowing that, Orthodox Christians brought a Christmas tree into the house, gifts were hung on it. Only now life is artificial, and the gifts on the Christmas tree are artificial, too. That's not how it used to be. They used to hang an apple in colored paper, candy, but why? And here they come to glorify Christ on this day - children, grandchildren, neighbors. They praise the Lord - the apple is taken off the tree, the candy is like a gift from Christ. That's where the decoration on the tree came from. It's a symbol of Christ's gifts.