One of the world’s most popular Christmas songs actually started out as a She Done Me Wrong song.
O Tannenbaum (or O Christmas Tree, as it is often sung in America) was written in 1824 by German composer Ernest Anschutz.
A “tannenbaum” is a fir tree – one of the stout evergreens that have covered northern Europe for millennia.
The composer recalled a song (written years earlier by Joachim Zarnack) in which a young man laments the day that he fell in love with his cheating-heart girlfriend. If only she had been as faithful as a tannenbaum, whose needles never change in color or freshness throughout the year.
Anschutz chose to transform what seemed like great material for a Country & Western ballad into a song about Christmas.
Two centuries ago, decorating evergreens during Advent was growing in popularity. There’s a well-worn but unlikely story that Martin Luther, the monk who helped launch the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, was the first person to bring a fir tree into his house and decorate it with lighted candles.
Reflecting on the beauty of ornaments and candles, Anschutz crafted a lilting song about the loveliness of evergreen branches.
Here’s a beautiful rendition in multiple languages by Andrea Bocelli, the classical singer who lost his sight as a young man.
Two aspects of this song’s story are unique.
The first is how often the tune has been used in non-Christmas contexts. It seems to be everywhere. You might recognize the official state songs Florida, My Florida; Maryland, My Maryland; and Michigan, My Michigan. Iowa has also gotten in on the action, not to mention the Boy Scouts of America.
The second interesting reality is the utter lack of agreement on the song’s actual lyrics.
Dozens of different versions have been published.
The Peanuts characters are reminders that when Charles Schulz created his famous A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965, he hired jazz legend Vince Guaraldi to compose a memorable instrumental version of O Christmas Tree.
When push comes to shove, these lyrics will do quite well:
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How lovely are thy branches!
Not only green when summer's here
But in the coldest time of year.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How lovely are thy branches!
An evergreen is a symbol of faithfulness.
Season in and season out, its branches are ever-green, ever-true, ever-reliable.
But this song, which appears to be about botany, is really a statement of theology.
O Tannenbaum is an apt reminder that in a broken world, only God’s love is constant. Trees will come and go. People will make promises but fail to keep them. Even dream jobs and fantasy marriages, at their very best, will eventually come to an end in a world that is always changing.
In our hunger for deep security – for something that will actually last – only God’s love and grace will prove to be ever-green.
That’s a great thing to remember as you try to keep your balance while placing that star at the very top of your tree.
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