If Spiegel is now a 97-year-old retiree, who lives surrounded by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but decades ago, he He was a fierce fighter pilot in the United States air forces stationed on the European front in World War II. Spiegel is one of the few airmen of the WWII that he is still alive, and despite his advanced age he continues to keep memories of that stage of his life.
Spiegel could be known for his achievements in battle, or for the story of his last mission, in which he was hit by antiaircraft rounds, forcing him to make an emergency landing in a Warsaw already dominated by the Red Army. But this veteran has another fact in his life that is much more remarkable worldwide: Spiegel is the ideologue of the artificial Christmas tree.
An idea at the most opportune moment
It all happened on his return from the war, when looking at a shop window looked at the dysfunctionality of real trees as a Christmas ornament, since they were very dirty, they were very heavy, and impractical. Looking at that store, the veteran observed among the Christmas decorations, a kind of synthetic bushes, which made you think that the traditional fir or pine, too It could be replaced by one of plastic and metal materials.
At that time, Spiegel worked in a brush factory in financial difficulties, and came up with the idea of forming a Christmas tree division within the company to settle accounts. At first this idea was not well received, those in charge of giving the green light they saw many fissures: Why an artificial tree if there were real ones? How was one made of plastic? Where did they keep it after using it at Christmas until the arrival of the next one …? But mainly the big question was another: How to make a business prosper that its sales band covers, at most, twenty days a year?
The success of the artificial tree
After all that tidal wave of doubts that was coming over him, Spiegel got an opportunity to develop his idea, with a very limited budget and little confidence from his superiors, thus initiating the tests and prototypes. The first samples were unconvincing and aesthetically ugly, although with patience and perseverance, Spiegel He managed to develop a range of trees that were very popular. Little by little the volume of sales began to rise, and after 20 years the company sold some 800,000 trees annually.
East success and profits made Spiegel a billionaire, that also earned a position as director of the company, where it remained until his retirement in the early 2000s. This is how this war veteran revolutionized the concept of Christmas decorations to a new trend that continues to this day.
The origin of the Christmas tree
“Homemade Christmas trees emerged in Germany in the early 16th century. Some say that its great driver was Martin Luther. The trees chosen were the Evergreen, those with evergreens, those that maintain their foliage throughout the year “, picks up an article from Infobae.
At first, the tree was used on December 24 in the feast of adam and eve. But soon after another custom became popular. Christians celebrated the arrival of jesus on December 24 and one of the household elements that made up the rite of the celebration was a wooden pyramid that represented the Holy Trinity.
The Christmas tree as we know it today is a synthesis of these two celebrations. So much so that one of its main ornaments, the red balls refer to the apples related to the festival of Adam and Eve.
This tradition spread across northern Europe and the British Isles, from where it was exported by settlers to North America, and where it became a global tradition for the Christian faith.
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