Christmas trees weren’t part of the Tudor and Elizabethan Christmas festivities – this tradition arrived from Germany later. Instead, homes were decorated with natural evergreen foliage including holly, ivy, yew, mistletoe, box, and laurel. Houses were not decorated before Christmas Eve and decorations would be taken down at Candlemas, as it was considered unlucky to decorate the home outside of this period. The first record of a Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia.

Down with the rosemary, and so

Down with the bays and mistletoe;

Down with the holly, ivy, all

Wherewith ye deck’s the Christmas hall;

That so the superstitions find

Not one least branch there left behind:

For look! How many leaves there be

Neglected there, Maids, trust to me,

So many goblins you shall see.

Robert Herrick’s Candelmas poem (Hesperides, 1648)

You can make some festive spiced decoration to decorate you Christmas tree this year with this fun tutorial.