Popular Minnesota Holiday Decoration Could Be Hiding a Dark Secret

The festive glow of Christmas trees, lights, and decorations all illuminate our homes and hearts this time of year. But could these particular beloved decorations be harboring a darker history here in Minnesota?

Those familiar decorations we haul out every year and put up in and around our homes to celebrate the Christmas season in the North Star State have a rich history. In fact, the Saturday Evening Post notes that our familiar Christmas tree got its start before the first Christmas:

Pagans first used green fir trees during Roman times to celebrate the winter solstice and other seasonal festivals (including Saturnalia, the Roman festival of lights that Christmas day is currently based on.)

The story went on to say that the first 'modern' Christmas tree appeared in the 15th or 16th century over in Germany. Germans and other European immigrants and settlers then brought them here to Minnesota and elsewhere in America in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The National Library of Congress notes that President Calvin Coolidge helped light the first national Christmas tree in Washington, D.C. over 100 years ago, in December of 1923. Today, of course, Christmas trees and other decorations are common here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

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But does one of them hold a dark secret? Perhaps. One of the more popular decorations these days in Minnesota and around the country is what this MPR story calls 'spruce pots.' You've likely seen these festive winter pots, filled with spruce (or some other coniferous tree branch) tips, pine cones, a birch log or pole, and usually some artificial holly berries at stores, right?

Well, there's a possibility that spruce top could have been illegally obtained. While MPR said many counties, municipalities, and private landowners in northern Minnesota legally allow those black spruce tips to be grown, cultivated, cut, and sold as decorations, the current demand for these holiday products has also caused a black market to develop.

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And that illegal practice has caught the attention of law enforcement. This Outdoor News story notes that the conservation officers with the Minnesota DNR recently arrested a man for doing just that:

The DNR is pressing felony charges against Blake Buschman of Babbitt, for the recent illegal harvest of more than 5,000 spruce top trees on private and county property, according to the St. Louis County criminal complaint.

This story from northern Minnesota's Timberjay, notes that Buschman has been convicted multiple times of offenses related to spruce top harvesting going back over five years, and notes that while harvesting those spruce tops, boughs, and other items is a legitimate business, there are strict protocols that have to be followed.

So was the main part of that holiday decorative spruce pot (like the one we have on our front porch right now) legally obtained? Most likely it was-- but perhaps it also has a hidden past, as well. Speaking of Minnesota Christmas decorations, do you remember what they were like when you were a kid? Keep scrolling to look at some holiday classics from years ago!

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