Christmas tree

noun

plural Christmas trees

1

: a usually evergreen tree decorated at Christmas

2

: an oil-well control device consisting of an assembly of fittings placed at the top of the well

3

drag racing : a set of paired colored lights arranged in two columns on a vertical pole in front of the starting line and used for starting a race

Lights on top of the Christmas tree tell the drivers to enter the staging area. Larger yellow lights mean, "get ready." The green light means "go!"

—Lori Polydoros

Examples of Christmas tree in a Sentence

We hung the lights on the Christmas tree.

Recent Examples on the Web

There’s also a living Christmas tree at Portuguese Park. —Sacbee.com, 4 Dec. 2025

There’s something about the smell of a real Christmas tree that fake ones just can’t match. —Tiffani Jackson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 4 Dec. 2025

The larger version has two tiers of six-layer cakes, either in chocolate or vanilla, and is iced with pink buttercream and topped with green buttercream Christmas trees and white buttercream swirls. —Kate Perez, USA Today, 4 Dec. 2025

After putting up her Christmas tree this year, Nicola Sinclair, 24, noticed how inquisitive her kitten, named Mila, became. —Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1826, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for Christmas tree

• agree
• allee
• banshee
• beastly
• bibi
• bowsprit
• carefree
• cerci
• chablis
• cowpea
• crappie
• crappy

Kids Definition

Christmas tree

noun

: a usually evergreen tree decorated at Christmas