Editing Christmas tree (section)

====Estonia, Latvia, and Germany====
{{multiple image
| total_width       = 400
| align             = left
| image1            = Tallinn Christmas market 2014 1.JPG
| alt1              = Tallinn Christmas Market in Estonia
| image2            = Christmas Hanukkah decoration Pariser Platz 2020-12-11 25.jpg
| alt2              = Christmas tree and menorah with Brandenburg Gate in background
| footer            = Left: [[Tallinn Christmas Market]] in Estonia; Right: Christmas tree with [[Hanukkah]] Menorah next to it in [[Pariser Platz]] in Berlin, Germany
}}
Customs of erecting decorated trees in winter time can be traced to Christmas celebrations in Renaissance-era [[guild]]s in [[Northern Germany]] and [[Livonia]]. The first evidence of decorated trees associated with Christmas Day are trees in guildhalls decorated with sweets to be enjoyed by the apprentices and children. In Livonia (present-day [[Estonia]] and [[Latvia]]), in 1441, 1442, 1510, and 1514, the [[Brotherhood of Blackheads]] erected a tree for the holidays in their guild houses in [[Reval]] (now Tallinn) and [[Riga]]. On the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the [[Town Hall Square, Tallinn|Town Hall Square]], where the members of the brotherhood danced around it.<ref>{{cite book |first=Friedrich |last=Amelung |title=Geschichte der Revaler Schwarzenhäupter: von ihrem Ursprung an bis auf die Gegenwart: nach den urkundenmäßigen Quellen des Revaler Schwarzenhäupter-Archivs 1, Die erste Blütezeit von 1399–1557 |language=de|trans-title=History of the Tallinn Blackheads: from their origins until the present day: from the testimonial sources of the Tallinn Blackheads archive. 1: The first golden age of 1399–1557 |location=[[Tallinn|Reval]] |publisher=Wassermann |year=1885 }}</ref>

A [[Bremen]] guild chronicle of 1570 reports that a small tree decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels, and paper flowers" was erected in the guild-house for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas Day.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1jgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22aus+Deutschland%22|title=Das Weihnachtsfest. Eine Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte der Weihnachtszeit|first=Ingeborg|last=Weber-Kellermann|author-link=Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann|publisher=Bucher|year=1978|isbn=978-3-7658-0273-7|page=22|language=de|trans-title=Christmas: A cultural and social history of Christmastide|quote={{lang|de|Man kann als sicher annehmen daß die Luzienbräuche gemeinsam mit dem Weinachtsbaum in Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts aus Deutschland über die gesellschaftliche Oberschicht der Herrenhöfe nach Schweden gekommen sind.}} ({{langx|en|One can assume with certainty that traditions of lighting, together with the Christmas tree, crossed from Germany to Sweden in the 19th century via the princely upper classes.}})}}</ref> In 1584, the pastor and chronicler [[Balthasar Russow]] in his {{lang|gml|Chronica der Provinz Lyfflandt}} (1584) wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated [[Picea abies|spruce]] at the market square, where the young men "went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame".

After the [[Protestant Reformation]], such trees are seen in the houses of upper-class Protestant families as a counterpart to the Catholic [[Nativity scene|Christmas cribs]]. This transition from the guild hall to bourgeois family homes in the Protestant parts of Germany ultimately gives rise to the modern tradition as it developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the present-day, the churches and homes of Protestants and Catholics feature both Christmas cribs and Christmas trees.<ref name="Foley2022">{{cite book |last1=Foley |first1=Michael P. |title=Why We Kiss under the Mistletoe: Christmas Traditions Explained |date=6 September 2022 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-68451-281-2 |language=en}}</ref>