They were living in Germany in about 1572 and they had just come in from getting apples. They had just brought home apples from the market and were now getting thin cookies, cutting out paper roses and apples to put on their Christmas tree.
Evergreens represent everlasting life.
That is what everlasting life is. While the girls decorated the rest of the tree, Clara continued telling Maria other legends and stories of the green and red colors at Christmas. Even before Christ, there were men and women called druids that worshipped the earth. They used evergreens in the winter to show that the woodland and fairies live with them during winter. The Romans kept branches during winter through the beginning of January and then they would exchange branches with their friends.