O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches!

Hi, this is Fr. Rocky with another Advent Inspiration.

Everyone loves a Christmas tree, and no two trees are the same. Growing up in my family we would put up the tree around December 13, the Feast of Santa Lucia and the ancient festival of lights. Sometimes we’d go and cut it down, other times we’d go with our father and buy it from the local Boy Scout Troop, and we’d get extra greens for the nativity scenes both inside and out. We’d get the best one we could find and tall enough to reach the ceiling.

The Christmas tree tradition started in northern Europe but is now universal. It’s always some type of evergreen tree, symbolic of the new and eternal life of the Christ child. The lights on the tree represent the light and hope of Christ; the ornaments represent the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit found in the soul united to Christ, and the star on top of the tree represents the Star of David that led the Three Kings from the East to Bethlehem.