Christmas tree

American  

noun

Christmas trees plural

1. an evergreen tree decorated at Christmas with ornaments and lights.

2. a control board or panel containing a variety of colored lights for indicating the status of various functions, elements, components, etc.

3. an elaborate arrangement of pipes, valves, etc., as for controlling the flow of oil or gas.

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Christmas tree British  

noun

1. an evergreen tree or an imitation of one, decorated as part of Christmas celebrations

2. Also called: Christmas bush.  any of various trees or shrubs flowering at Christmas and used for decoration

3. another name for pohutukawa

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Christmas trees
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Christmas tree

An Americanism dating back to 1780–90

Example Sentences

All that said, Mr. Wheeler — who operates a Christmas-tree farm and produces maple syrup from his own trees — has an event of note on his calendar.

From Washington Times • Sep. 25, 2022

At the end of the season, a number of us work for an online Christmas-tree service delivering to celebrities like Rudy Giuliani and Drew Barrymore, then picking up the trees later.

From Golf Digest • May 5, 2020

In Denmark, Sune Boye Riis’s transect with his car net took him past a bit of woods, some suburban lawns, some hedges, a Christmas-tree farm.

From New York Times • Nov. 27, 2018

West remembers one “Ham for the Holidays” show when Platt walked onstage wearing a Christmas-tree costume and didn’t say a word, but her confused, why-am-I-wearing-this expression had the audience laughing for a solid two minutes.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 3, 2018

Now it resembled a crocodile that had rolled around in Christmas-tree lights.

From "Aru Shah and the End of Time" by Roshani Chokshi