REGION — I don’t really like sentences that start with “did you know,” but, did you know that the first Christmas trees for sale originated from the Catskills? It’s true. Mark Carr transported the trees from the Catskills to New York City, where he sold them at the Washington Market, or present-day Tribeca (which, did you know, is a portmanteau from Triangle Below Canal Street), in 1851. This was the country’s first Christmas tree lot.

This tidbit was written about in the New York Times in 1880 (did you know the newspaper has been published since 1851? OK, I’ll stop now). Here’s an excerpt: “The business of supplying the market with Christmas trees and greens is comparatively a new enterprise in this country. It is only 29 years ago that Mark Carr, a jolly woodman, dwelling among the foot-hills of the Catskills, conceived the brilliant idea that New-York wanted Christmas trees, and he could make money by furnishing them. About two weeks before Christmas he drew two large shed-loads of these trees to the river with his oxen, and started with them to the Metropolis. Here he paid his silver dollar for the use of a strip of sidewalk on the corner of Greenwich and Vesey streets, and at once flung out his mountain novelties, which found buyers at good prices.” Imagine paying rent in New York City for one dollar!

But the history of the Christmas tree extends beyond the Catskills. The first trees appeared in Germany in the 19th century. They were displayed in public buildings and decorated with sweets and fruit, which the children picked off on Christmas Day.

The Christmas tree slowly made its way to America, where legend has it, the first ever tree was displayed in the prison cell of a Hessian soldier in 1777. However, they did not become popular until Mark Carr set up shop with his Catskills trees. In that time, small trees sold for five to 10 cents, and eight- to 10-foot trees went for a quarter. His family continued the business until 1898.

Trees were often decorated elaborately with candles, candies and dolls. Martin Luther is credited with being the first to place burning candles on a tree, but it was the father of electricity, Thomas Edison, who sold the first Christmas tree lights. From the New York Times article “A Brilliant Christmas Tree—How an Electrician Amused His Children,” December 27, 1884: “A pretty as well as novel Christmas tree was shown to a few friends by Mr. E. H. Johnson, President of the Edison Company for Electric Lighting, last evening in his residence, No 139 East Thirty-sixth-street. The tree was lighted by electricity, and children never beheld a brighter tree or one more highly colored than the children of Mr. Johnson when the current was turned and the tree began to revolve.”

In other countries, Christmas trees were introduced to the common home by royals. For instance, in England, after Queen Victoria married her German cousin Prince Albert, wealthy middle-class families followed the fashion. Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg introduced the Christmas tree to Vienna in 1816.

Of course, today the Christmas tree is an essential part of the holiday. And for us here in the Catskills, you can probably chop one down in your backyard.