The Spurious Christmas tree.
Martin Luther is often credited with the idea of a Christmas tree. What you will never hear is that his neighbor, Niederwälder Nadelbaum sold the Great Reformer a fir tree as a prank.
The Nadelbaum family had been famous for selling fire wood for hundreds of years. The family had a tradition of parading a small fir tree into town after the snow as a way of advertising their business. One day in December 1525 Niederwälder had sold all of the split wood and didn’t want to take the time to cut up the six foot tall anzeige baum (advertisement tree). And that is when he remembered his good-natured neighbors, Martin and Katharina Luther.
Nadelbaum convinced Luther that having a freshly cut fir tree in the house would be an excellent way to keep his kitsch Czechoslovakian candle collection organized and a nifty way to display them in the living room. When Katharina began questioning her husband about the tree and candles Luther realized his neighbor had pulled one over on him. Ever the quick wit, Luther began lighting the candles and making up a tall tale about how he was reforming the pagan Yuletide celebrations.
In the following spring Luther got back at Niederwälder by putting green dye in his beer but that is another story.
