You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.

This is the Useless Information Podcast.

I am Steve Silverman.

Useless Information. useless information.

Years ago, while I was a freshman at the University of Buffalo, a few of my friends had a wee bit too much to drink one night, and they decided to go in search of a Christmas tree for our dorm suite.

I awoke the next morning to find what could only be described as a Charlie brown Christmas tree.

Branches were few and far between, while their tree decorating was exactly what you'd expect from a bunch of drunk teenage males. They used

toilet paper as a substitute for garland,

Playboy pictures hung from the branches,

and empty beer cans were used as ornaments.

I couldn't help but laugh every time I walked by it. Today my wife and I

own enough ornaments to decorate half a dozen Christmas trees yet we only own one.

My guess is that we're not alone in that respect, yet historically it was not always that

way.

You see prior to the late 1800s, most Christmas trees in the United States were decorated with

fruits, nuts, and paper ornaments.

Those shiny glass

glass ornaments that everyone loves,

they can be traced back to the early 1800s.

That's when glass blowers in Lausher Germany develop reflective panoramic balls that were intended for window

and garden displays. By the mid 1800s they created smaller versions that were designed for

use on Christmas trees.

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