Once my gardens are tucked snugly in bed I turn my attention to the indoors, thinking I am done with plants for another season. But soon the holidays will be upon us and I realize that plants fill our lives all year round. Each season and many holidays including Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas and Hanukkah, have plants specifically associated with them. For many of us, plants make an important contribution to our holiday decorating and celebrations.
Poinsettias, holly, ivy, mistletoe and of course the centerpiece evergreen tree have all contributed to the notion of green and red as the traditional colors of Christmas. Decorating the home with plants at the holiday season is especially true in the northern climates where plants are rarely growing outside in the last week of December.
The use of evergreen trees to celebrate the winter season occurred before the birth of Christ, but the first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510 and lighting a Christmas tree with the use of small candles dates back to the mid-17th Century. Christmas trees have been sold commercially in the United States since about 1850 with Balsam, Douglas and Frazier Firs and Scotch and White Pines being among the most popular varieties. While originally Christmas trees were taken from forests, today 98 percent of Christmas trees are grown on tree farms, an industry that employs more than 100,000 people. 2-3 seedlings are planted for each tree harvested. 73 million new trees will be planted this year and during the 7-10 years that it will take for them to reach maturity they will provide a habitat for birds and wildlife, remove dust and pollen from the air, while each acre of trees will provide the daily oxygen requirement for 18 people.
I find the story of mistletoe and how kissing under it became part of the holiday tradition very fascinating. The Anglo-Saxon word “misle” means dungand “tan” meant twig; thus mistletoe meant “dung on a twig,” not exactly the romantic association it has today. Mistletoe is a parasitic plant, meaning it needs a host plant on which to live and that is usually a deciduous tree. It is also evergreen and because of this it is most noticeable in winter after the leaves have fallen off the host tree. This “lifestyle” maybe why mistletoe is associated with ancient beliefs and myths and how it came to be known as the “kissing plant.”
Ancient belief was that mistletoe sprang to life from bird droppings in the treetop (thus the name “dung on a twig”). Legend has it that the ancient Druids of Old Europe considered mistletoe to be sacred, possibly because the evergreen plant seemed to magically appear in the trees in the winter after all the other traces of green had disappeared. The Druids were required to cut the plant from oak trees with a gold knife, the mistletoe had to fall on a white sheet and be carried away by virgins. Because of its reputation as an aphrodisiac and as an aid to fertility, mistletoe was used in wedding ceremonies, which may have led to the practice of kissing beneath it.
Kissing under the mistletoe is a relatively new Christmas tradition however, as years ago this was practiced in England on New Year’s.[1] The practice of kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas may actually be of Scandinavian origin. According to this custom, any two people meeting under mistletoe are obligated to kiss. In his story “Christmas Eve,” Washington Irving states, “The mistletoe is still hung up in farmhouses and kitchens at Christmas and the young men have the privilege of kissing the young girls beneath it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases.”
Most of the colors of plants associated with Christmas are red and green. Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday also known as the Festival of Lights, is often celebrated with the traditional colors of white and blue, a testament to the colors of the Israeli flag designed by the Zionist movement in 1891. This year Hanukkah starts at sundown on December 25! Hanukkah flowers in pretty shades of blue and white, blooming plants, and elegant flower centerpieces with candles add to the festive feeling of the holidays.
Whatever holidays you celebrate, all the plants associated with them should make us realize that plants fill our homes and lives all year round; that there is plenty of green to sustain us until the garden emerges from under the snow next spring.
[1] This information is from Jerry Goodspeed Extension horticulturalist at Utah State University