The First Christmas Tree was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1897, capitalizing on the enormous success of The Story of the Other Wise Man two years earlier. The story recounts the legend of Saint Boniface (Winfred) in eighth-century Germany, where he encounters a community of pagans gathered to sacrifice a child at their sacred Thunder Oak. Boniface intervenes, fells the oak, and presents the small fir tree growing at its base as the new symbol — the “Christmas tree” pointing toward heaven.
Van Dyke weaves the narrative with careful attention to historical atmosphere: the dark forests of Thuringia, the clash between Christianity and Germanic paganism, and the specific charisma of Boniface as a missionary figure. The story is shorter and less emotionally complex than The Other Wise Man, but it demonstrates Van Dyke’s skill at transforming religious legend into literary narrative that is simultaneously entertaining, instructive, and atmospheric.
The book was published as a gift edition with illustrations and became a Christmas-season staple, though it never achieved the cultural penetration of its predecessor.
Collecting The First Christmas Tree
First edition (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1897): Decorated cloth, illustrated.
Market values:
- First edition: $30–$80
- Later Scribner’s editions: $10–$30