The modern Christmas tree tradition came from western Germany, from a medieval custom, as a paradise tree -- a tree decorated with apples, wafers (or cookies), and candles representing the Garden of Eden, the host, and Christ. By the 19th century it had become a deep-rooted German tradition. European countries such as Austria, Switerland, The Netherlands, and Poland imported the German tradition. Queen Victoria's husband, German Prince Albert popularized the tradition in England after it had been introduced earlier in the 19th century. German and English settlers to North America brought the tradition there and missionaries in the 19th and 20th centuries spread the tradition to China, Japan, and other parts of Asia.