Musings about Christmas trees and their roots

Decorated trees are everywhere during the holidays. While it seems that Christmas trees might be a more recent custom, for thousands of years they were used to celebrate winter festivals (pagan and Christian). People adorned their homes with branches during the winter solstice in anticipation of the spring to come.
The Scandinavian Vikings thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder. The first written record of a decorated Christmas tree comes from R