O Christmas Tree – Chords, Tabs and Sheet Music

O Christmas Tree is a Christmas carol that originated in Germany (in German: O Tannenbaum) and has become one of the most popular Christmas songs over the years. And not only in Germany! It has gained international recognition and has been translated into many other languages. In Spanish it’s called “Oh Abeto” and in French it’s known as “Mon beau sapin”. In this free guitar lesson we will learn about the origin and history of this christmas song and how to play it on guitar. There are many ways to play this song and we will start with a very simple version that requires only one string of your guitar! But don’t worry, we will also show you how to play O Christmas Tree with some basic guitar chords and provide you free PDF downloads like the sheet music for your practicing or lessons!

History and Origin of O Christmas Tree

The history and origins of the song go back a long way. The roots of O Christmas Tree can be traced back to an old german folk song from the 16th century called “Es lebe hoch der Zimmermannsgeselle”. The song celebrated a carpenter and his evergreen fir tree, which even then symbolized steadfastness and loyalty. The most famous version of the song was written by Ernst Anschütz in 1824. In this version, the fir tree is honored as a symbol of loyalty and constancy, and the lyrics begin with the famous words: “O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how true are your leaves”.

Over time, the carol has become an integral part of Christmas celebrations around the world. It accompanies the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree at home and contributes to the festive atmosphere of the Christmas season.

Tabs for O Christmas Tree

There are many different ways to play a song, from simple to more advanced fingerstyle arrangements. We want to focus on simple arrangements, but we will also explore a variety of playing techniques. We’ll look at both fingerpicking the strings and strumming with chords. You will have the flexibility to choose the approach you like and learn that particular version. However, all versions are worth experimenting with and guitar teachers may find it beneficial to start with the easiest version and progress to more advanced renditions.

1. Level: Playing only on One Guitar String

Let’s start with a fingerpicking version. We can try to play it on one guitar string since we find all the required music notes there. But we need to go up to the 14th fret! It really depends on the guitar if you can do this. It might be difficult with some classical guitars but it should be possible for most acoustic guitar. So, you should check at first if you can reach the the 14th fret on the guitar. If so, you are good to go! Push down the string with your index or middle finger of your left hand. Pluck the string with the thumb of your right hand.

Here are the tabs for O Christmas Tree on one string:

Below is a recording of how it should sound. You can play along and if it’s too fast, just slow it down.

You can actually play the same pattern on any other string as well. Try for example the 6th string (low E string) to have a pretty low version of O Christmas Tree.

2. Level: Playing on several Guitar Strings

We have already seen that playing on one string can be quite easy since we have to focus only on one string but you need to move your left hand a lot. That’s why it’s actually much more common to play a melody by using several strings of the guitar. Of course, you now have to use several fingers and pluck different strings, but this is a very nice exercise and you will get used to it!

Here are the tabs for playing the nursery rhyme on the first three strings:

Again, you can listen to the recording to check your playing and see how it should sound.

Chords for O Christmas Tree

Fingerpicking is a very good exercise on the guitar and it’s also a beginner-friendly way to get familiar with the melody of a song. But if you want to sing and play at the same time the song strumming it with chords is a great way. And here again, you can find many different ways to play this song by chords but we want to start with an easy version. This means we are using basic guitar chords and a key, which is also easy to sing for most of the people.

The chords that you need for O Christmas Tree are the basic chords G, D7 and C.

If you know how to play these basic chords and changing between them is not a big challenge for you, then you are good to go! If not, practice first the chords individually and try to play the sequence G-D7-C with simple down strums until you get used to it.

Remember, beginners should start playing new songs slowly. So, for every chord change we make at first just a down strum. This gives us enough time for changing between chords without worrying too much about strumming. Also, singing is much easier in the beginning if you just do one down strum on every chord change. Once you master it, you can apply a strumming pattern.

Sheet Music for O Christmas Tree

If you can read music, you can use them to play O Christmas Tree. Mostly advanced guitarists and music teachers like them because they give all the information about a piece of music.

Free PDF Printables for O Christmas Tree

You can also download the sheet music with the chords as a PDF for free in order to use it for your guitar lessons!

Interested in instruments other than the guitar? You can also find a free lesson on how to play O Christmas Tree on the piano and ukulele.