This morning I awoke to a winter wonderland, and looking out the back door the snow cover branches reminded me of an article from back in 2008. At the time I didn’t really think the branches in the article looked like snow, but over the years I have come to realize that they really do evoke the memory of snow covered trees. It’s really surprising to me that I think of that article almost every time we get a particularly beautiful snowfall.
Here’s the article:
WHITE WRAPPED SASSAFRAS TREES
Susanna Reppert, TheRosemaryHouse.com
Having grown up with an evergreen
tree every year at Christmas time, the idea of a sassafras Christmas tree
intriqued me. So when I had a chance to
meet with Earlyn Repman of York,
PA who keeps this early Christmas
tradition alive I just knew I had to go see it.
So I loaded the family in the van on the Sunday before Christmas last
year to go to view the grand wrapped Sassafras tree.
While Ms Repman has other trees in her home, a red,white and blue tree and a
tree decorated in gingerbread, the main
feature in the house is the 7 foot in
circumference sassafras tree. She feels
that traditional green trees can’t
compare in beauty
to the twinkle of lights
on the “snow”, glitter of icicles and the openness that allows you to
see every ornament throughout the tree.
2008 photos were different…
Sassafras is the preferred tree
because of the shape of the tree. She
marks the tree in the early spring before it has any leaves on it and when she
can see the shape very well and then in late fall she will go out and gather
the tree. Sassafras not only has a nice
full shape but also provides the strength needed and it is pliable to work with
while wrapping.
Some of the tree branches are first reinforced and
tied to the trunk with wire because as it dries out it will weaken. Then the wrapping begins. The tree is wrapped in strips of white
cotton, not batting as it is too heavy.
The white lights are wrapped in with the white cotton so that you do not
see the wires. On the 10 foot high, 7
foot round tree, the wrapping takes 16-17 hours. This large tree also holds 4,000 old leaded
icicles, which she saves from year to year and 758 ornaments.
The National Christmas
Tree Association website lists a history of Christmas
trees. According to their history, in the early 1900’s, over harvesting of
evergreen trees had caused their numbers to dwindle considerably.
Conservationists were concerned and magazines began to promote the use of an
artificial “snow” covered tree, consisting of a branch of a deciduous
tree that would be
wrapped in cotton.
Ms Repman with one of her trees.
According to the National Christmas
Center in Paradise, Pa.,
early settlers would wrap sassafras trees in cotton batting then decorate
them with ornaments. In fact, you can see a cotton wrapped tree at the National Christmas
Center (as of 2025, the Center has moved to Stone Gables Estate in Elizabethtown PA).
Earlyn Repman’s mother used a
wrapped Sassafras tree and now Earlyn’s daughters are continuing the tradition
as well. A fun idea that is very sparkly
and the ornaments do hang very straight on the branches and are easily seen
throughout the tree. But I must say
I did miss the smell of the fresh cut
evergreen tree.
