Jill McGrath, age 10, of Fredericton, N.B., Canada, for her question:

When did they have the first Christmas tree?

Some of our best customs were started before the dawn of history. The story of the Christmas tree goes back much farther than the first Christmas. Before then, of course, it was not called a Christmas tree. The idea began in ancient Europe, thousands of years ago. There the old religions honored the changing seasons of the year with feasts and festivities. One of these feasts came in mid winter, around December 22, the shortest day of the year. It was the custom to gather evergreen boughs and little trees at this time and bring them indoors as festive decorations.

Many European people kept up this ancient custom, long after they became Christians. Somehow it seemed suitable to go with Christmas Day on December 25. Gradually people forgot the ancient custom and thought of their evergreen decorations as belonging to the Christmas season. Nowadays'; almost every home must have a Christmas tree. But people were decorating their homes with little green trees, with mistletoe and red holly berries ages before the world's first Christmas Day.