Choosing an Ashe County, NC Christmas Tree  History of the Christmas tree dates far back, before our traditional concepts of Christmas. The Christmas tree and its evergreen boughs is one of the few symbols of hope and continued life that has carried on from the ancients.  It has a heritage that extends to the Pagans, the ancient Celts, even the earliest Romans all of whom used the sacred boughs as a sign to mark the winter solstice. The winter solstice marks the longest night and the shortest day of year in the Northern Hemisphere and generally falls on the 21st or 22nd of December.  For the ancient Pagans, winter solstice marked the period when the sun god, weakened by the fall, would begin to get well with the promise of a return to spring and a strong summer.  For the ancient Celts, Druid Priests would mark their temples with boughs from evergreens as a sign of everlasting life.  Even Vikings regarded the trees as Balder, the sun god’s plant and would cut them down