# Christmas!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas/216286
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 1, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas/216286 "2003-12-01T16:31:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Anoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anoni)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas/216286/1 "2003-12-01T16:31:10Z")
Sitting with some friends early in this festive season the question of why is turkey the traditional fare came up. Can anyone help?
Also the decorating of a fir tree? It was suggested that this tradition started in Germany but not why.
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### Author:  [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christmas/216286/2 "2003-12-01T19:22:57Z")
The traditional fare of Christmas at my house is ham, and Dickens’ characters had a Christmas goose.
The origin of the Christmas tree seems to be a mystery, but [this article](http://users.rcn.com/tlclcms/chrtree.htm) seems to be one of the better-researched delvings into the question. [This one](http://users.erols.com/bcccsbs/christmas/tree.htm) appears to present the same facts in a more chronological order and without any sort of bibliography or citations of works.