“O Tannenbaum”

“O Tannenbaum” is a Christmas carol that recurs at two markedly different family celebrations. In the earlier scene, its singing draws relatives, servants, and the poor into a festive procession beneath a brilliantly lit Christmas tree; at the first Christmas after the death of the family’s matriarch, the carol remains, but the traditional gathering has contracted and its voices are subdued. The song’s return makes it a measure of both continuity and loss.

The Earlier Christmas Procession

At the first celebration, the family has heard the Christmas story and sung “Silent night, holy night” in the landscape room. Then Madame Buddenbrook rises, takes the hands of her grandson Johann and great-granddaughter Elisabeth, and leads the company across the house. Older relatives close ranks behind her; younger family members follow, joined in the columned hall by servants and the poor. Together they sing “O Tannenbaum” as they pass through the wide-open folding doors into the grand hall.

The procession brings generations and household ranks into a shared ritual, though not without comic difference. Uncle Christian makes the children laugh by lifting his legs like a marching marionette and singing “Oh, Tinny Boom.” The solemn carol thus belongs to a scene that accommodates both ceremonial order and family play.

The room gives the song a lavish visual setting. Singed evergreen scents the hall; countless flames make it glow, and a Christmas tree towers almost to the ceiling, topped by a shining angel and arranged with a sculptured manger at its base. Smaller candle-lit trees, gifts, white linen, and gas jets fill the room. The carol accompanies a collective entrance into this decorated space, where the family’s celebration extends to the servants and the poor through gifts set out for them.

A Changed Celebration

The song returns at the first Christmas after Madame Buddenbrook’s death, now at Thomas Buddenbrook’s home. The old “children’s day” has been discontinued, and the gathering is smaller: the Ladies Buddenbrook from Breite Strasse and the old Krögers are absent. The band of poor who had gathered on Meng Strasse for shoes and woollens is missing as well, as are the choirboys who had once sung there.

The remaining company sings “Silent night, holy night” by itself in the salon. Therese Weichbrodt, taking Gerda’s place because Gerda does not enjoy that part of the celebration, reads the Christmas story with precise diction. The family then sings the first verse of “O Tannenbaum” in subdued voices and moves through the rooms to the grand hall. The ritual persists, but its procession no longer gathers the same household or community around it.

Continuity and Loss

The contrast between the two celebrations gives the carol a structural significance beyond its place in the festivities. Its words recur while the circumstances around the singing change: a matriarch once leads a full procession, whereas the later observance follows a diminished guest list and the disappearance of established customs. The repeated song preserves a recognizable form of family life even as the people, gestures, and shared obligations that once animated it fall away.

The later Christmas is not presented as a joyful recovery of the old celebration. The family talks about its late mother, the sale of the house, and Hugo Weinschenk’s possible release; there is little good news, and the company is not radiant or lively. Against this subdued gathering, “O Tannenbaum” sounds less like proof that nothing has changed than like a surviving thread of ritual, carrying the memory of a more expansive family Christmas.