Symbolic Saturdays – Oh Christmas Tree!

Had 2020 been a normal year, I would have been doing my last wedding ceremony of the year this weekend. But alas – it’s on hold until next year and will be every bit as beautiful as the fabulous couple had planned! So today, I wanted to share one of the ways we’ll be incorporating some Christmas magic into their ceremony! 

Regardless of where you are in the world, Christmas carries lots of symbolism and tradition. For many that includes decorating a Christmas tree. With Pagan, then Christian and now secular origins, a Christmas tree, decorated with ornaments and lights is the centrepiece for Christmas! 

Evergreen trees and plants have been incorporated into winter festivals for thousands of years to decorate homes and elevate the spirit during the winter solstice. Fast forward to the Victorian era and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert brought the Christmas tree into popular focus. Today you’ll find Christmas trees of all sorts of shapes and sizes in most homes, town squares, shops and more. 

I love that time of year when we get the Christmas decorations down from the attic and open up the box of delights once again. Each decoration represents a memory. A memory of someone special, a holiday, a place an event which makes the act of decorating the tree all the more special – as was the case for us last weekend when we decided to give ourselves a boost and put the tree up early! 

With this in mind, my Christmas wedding couple loved the idea of making a Christmas tree a part of their wedding ceremony. Their wedding will take place (at last!), a year later than expected, next November in a gorgeous Sussex barn. Having spent the last few years travelling the world in their camper van, they recently returned to the UK to put down some roots. Both love Christmas – which is why their wedding will be taking place at this time of year. However, having lived frugally in a camper van they’ve never had space for Christmas decorations let alone a tree! Se we have decided to make the Christmas tree the backdrop of their wedding ceremony and invite guests to help decorate it. 

When the wedding invitations are sent out next year, they will contain a gift tag and a request to bring a Christmas tree decoration to the wedding ceremony. Guests will be invited to write a message of support to the couple on the gift tag and attach it to the decoration. When they arrive at the ceremony they’ll hang their decoration on the tree before taking their seat for the ceremony. As the couple walk down the aisle together, they’ll see a beautifully lit up tree with decorations from all their family and friends!

During the ceremony the couple will add their own decorations to the tree. I’ll also take a few moments to read out a few of the messages given by their friends and family.

Each year they’ll unwrap the decorations once again to put on their tree at home as a beautiful reminder of their family and friends who blessed their wedding day! I expect that there will be some thought and symbolism in each of the decorations. A reminder of the person who gifted it and symbolic of that particular friendship or relationship. 

This is a wonderful way to include every single guest in the ceremony and show their support for the couple. It also provides a lasting legacy to the couple so that they can return to their wedding ceremony memories every time they unpack and hang up the Christmas decorations year after year!