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Glite Dictionary
🎄 A festive tree 🌳 A bright-flowered tree
Christmas tree

Christmas tree

83 1.0
An evergreen tree decorated with lights and ornaments for Christmas
  • noun
  • /ˈkrɪs·məs tri/
translation icon : árbol de Navidad
  • But I was thinking about it tonight as I was decorating my Christmas tree.
  • an artificial Christmas tree
  • a PVC Christmas tree
  • make Christmas trees

But spruce trees, aren't those just Christmas trees, are they?

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Examples

  • As they enter the house, we hear Silent Night and see a Christmas tree, glittering with lights.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Finding the perfect Christmas tree is hard.

  • Today is a big day because we are going Christmas tree shopping.

  • If I saw this under the Christmas tree, boy would I be excited.

  • Soon, the whole family gathered around the Christmas tree to exchange presents.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • We decorated the Christmas tree with colorful lights and ornaments.

  • Every year, our family gathers to select the perfect Christmas tree for the living room.

  • After weeks of anticipation, we finally set up the Christmas tree and hung our favorite ornaments.

Synonyms

Doug fir
vsChristmas tree
  • US
1 4.4

A large evergreen tree with strong wood often used as a Christmas tree

is the decorated evergreen chosen for display in homes and public celebrations
Fraser fir
vsChristmas tree
  • US
1 7.8

A small fir tree from the mountains of the eastern United States often used as a Christmas tree

is the decorated evergreen used broadly for homes and public holiday displays

How Tall

Christmas tree
83 1.0
sapling
16 2.7

Surface Forms

Christmas tree singular
Christmas trees plural

Morphology

Christmas + tree

The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'Christmas' (the holiday) + 'tree' (a woody plant) — i.e., a tree associated with Christmas, typically decorated. This is a common, cross-linguistic compound pattern that a B1 learner who knows both words would readily understand.

Etymology

Christmas tree for a decorated tree comes from the custom of bringing a green tree into the home and 'decorating' it with lights and ornaments at Christmas, so the phrase means the tree used for the holiday.