Unfortunately, it is unknown when the first artificial Christmas tree was produced and sold in Europe. The earliest reference I know of so far is from 1852.[i] It reports that Germans living in Paris and some wealthy French families bought small artificial Christmas trees for New Year's Day.[ii] New Year's Day in France at that time played the same role as Christmas in Germany. Gifts to the family or lady of the house were sweets or chocolates in "cute little boxes or cartons". The author of the report writes as if it was common knowledge that there were artificial Christmas trees. Another source from 1853 reports of "fir trees made of paper."[iii]

There were two main reasons for the production and purchase of artificial Christmas trees. Firstly, from the authorities, who feared the annual devastation of forests by the cutting down of Christmas trees and wanted a remedy. On the other hand, from the buyers, who could save themselves the annual purchase of an expensive tree. However, an artificial Christmas tree also found staunch opponents. For example, in the circles of the 'strict' German Christmas lovers. In their eyes, an artificial tree was an insult to the original German Christmas tradition.

Those who were not deterred by this, initially had to accept a decisive disadvantage. It was the size of the first artificial Christmas trees. They were mostly rather small. But this shortcoming was soon remedied. As early as 1859, artificial Christmas trees were offered up to a height of 4 metres. [iv]

The advantage of all the artificial Christmas trees, then as now, was that they did not lose their needles, could be stored in a space-saving way (as the branches were bendable) and could be reused year after year. However, older goose feather trees also tend to lose a few feathers.

The ingredients for a goose feather tree were a vertical (wooden) stick, green coloured goose feathers (sometimes also peacock or turkey feathers) and wire. The feathers were dyed green, and the wet feathers stuck together and became similar to pine needles when they dried. The feathers were wrapped around a sturdier wire using thin wires. The connections thus created were shaped into branches and attached to the stick in a step-like manner. The 'branches' had small red berries at the end, which were formed from mass. (Austrian variants sometimes also have small candles that were recreated from paper). The effort of the manufacturers was to make the little trees look as real as possible.

On youtube you can find a video: a premium goose feather tree