The First Indoor Christmas Tree

The tale goes that Martin Luther was walking through the forest one night before Christmas when he saw the stars shining through the branches of a pine tree. They looked like glinting jewels. This wondrous sight inspired him to set up a tree in his house where he wired candles on to it and lit them. He told his children that this was to remind them of the starry heavens from whence their "Saviour came".  

Another legend from Germany records that a forester family were huddling round their fire one night when there was a knock on the door. When the forester opened the door there stood a poor little boy all alone. The family welcomed him in, fed and washed him and put him to bed in the youngest sons bed. The next morning, Christmas Day, the family awoke to a choir of Angels singing and the boy had turned into Jesus. Jesus went into their garden and picked a branch from a Fir tree, giving it to the family as a present to say thank you for looking after him. Ever since then people have brought a Fir tree into their houses to remember that night. 

This leads comfortably on to when the first Christmas tree was brought to England. This story is better known .............