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The Christmas tree tradition emerged from the “sacred trees” of Northern European mythology such as Yggdrasil, the giant ash tree at the center of the Norse cosmos that holds all the worlds in its roots and branches. It is said that St. Boniface came upon one such sacred tree during his mission to the Germanic tribes in 723. Upon finding devotees preparing to sacrifice a child to Thor at the “Thunder Oak,” Boniface intervened and miraculously chopped down the tree with one swift swing. He used its wood to build a Christian chapel, and in the spot where the oak...