"The
Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally
common in Pagan Rome and Pagan Egypt. In Egypt that tree was the
palm-tree; in Rome it was the fir; the palm tree denoting
the Pagan messiah, as Baal-Tamar, the fir referring to him
as Baal-Berith. The mother of Adonis, the sun-god and
great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have
been changed into a tree, and when in that state to have
brought forth her divine son. If the mother was a tree, the
son must have been recognized as the 'Man the branch.'
And this entirely accounts for the putting of the Yule Log
into the fire on Christmas Eve, and the appearance of the
Christmas tree the next morning"
- The Two Babylons, by
Alexander Hislop, p. 97