Over time, Christmas trees evolved from simple evergreen boughs and wooden pyramids decorated with pine branches to live evergreen trees and, by the 19th century, artificial trees.

Long before Christmas existed, many cultures used evergreens to celebrate the winter solstice (the shortest day and longest night of the year) on Dec. 21 or 22.

The green branches symbolized the sun starting to shine more and new plants growing.

The first written record of a decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia, in 1510. The tree was decorated with roses and people danced around it in the marketplace.

According to 16th-century folklore, Martin Luther is often credited with being the first to decorate a Christmas tree indoors. After walking through a forest of evergreens beneath a sky filled with shining stars, he was inspired to recreate the scene for his family by bringing a tree inside his home and decorating it with candles.

In the 1600s, France and Germany decorated trees with paper roses, apples and candies.

In Austria and Germany in the 17th and 18th centuries, tops of evergreens were cut and hung upside down in a living room corner. They were decorated with apples, nuts and strips of red paper.

In the 1850s, the first Christmas trees, chosen and cut at random from the woods, were sold commercially in America.

More than 150 years later, tree farmers focus more on conservation by growing trees on farms as a sustainable practice.

To ensure enough trees for harvest, growers plant one to three seedlings for every tree harvested.

Using small candles to decorate Christmas trees dates to the middle of the 17th century. It was Thomas Edison’s assistant, Edward Johnson, who came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees in 1882, leading to the mass production of Christmas lights in 1890.

Here are some interesting presidential Christmas tree facts: The first President to place a tree in the White House was Franklin Pierce in 1856; President Coolidge started the National Tree Lighting Ceremony on the White House lawn in 1923; and, in 1963, the national Christmas tree wasn’t lit until Dec. 22, because of a national 30-day period of mourning following the assignation of President John F. Kennedy.

The official Christmas tree tradition at Rockefeller Center began in 1933. Since 2004, the tree has been topped with a 55-pound Swarovski Crystal star.

Today the Christmas season generates sales not only for trees but also for holiday decorations.

For me, the holiday season is a fond reminder of memories of the past and traditions to be made in the future.