The Christmas Tree's Story in Britain and America #AdventCalendar2013 #Christmas

In conjunction with Ana's Advent Calendar 2013, 
I'm doing a post here on the Christmas tree's evolution in
Britain and America

(Note: a comment on my Advent Calendar post on Ana's blog could win you a prize of one of my eBooks.  A comment here will win you my eternal gratitude, but no prize, I'm sorry to say.)

The Christmas Tree in Britain

The Christmas tree first came to England with the Georgian Kings who came from Hanover, Germany. It is a common misconception that Prince Albert brought the Germanic custom of the Christmas tree to England. In fact, the tree was introduced in the eighteenth-century by Charlotte, wife of George III, who was reported in the 1780s and 1790s to have decorated and lit a fir tree in the house. At this time also, German Merchants living in England decorated their homes with Christmas trees.

George III, Queen Charlotte and their six children

George III's German-born queen, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, introduced her Christmas tree at a party she gave for children in 1800.  She had also arranged a ‘pyramid of toys upon the table’ to hand out as gifts.  Dr. John Watkins, the Queen’s biographer, wrote the following description:

"In the middle of the room stood an immense tub with a yew tree placed in it, from the branches of which hung bunches of sweetmeats, almonds, and raisins in papers, fruits and toys, most tastefully arranged, and the whole illuminated by small wax candles. After the company had walked around and admired the tree, each child obtained a portion of the sweets which it bore together with a toy and then all returned home, quite delighted. – Windsor Castle and the Christmas Tree."

Another contemporary writer penned this observation:

"A fir tree, about as high again as any of us, lighted all over with small tapers, several little wax dolls among the branches in different places, and strings of almonds and raisins alternately tied from one to the other, with skipping ropes for the boys, and each bigger girl had muslin for a frock, a muslin handkerchief, and a fan, and a sash, all prettily done up in a handkerchief, and a pretty necklace and earrings besides.

Despite the complimentary observations of the visitors, the custom of decorating a Christmas tree did not spread much beyond the royal family.  Unfortunately, the British public were not fond of their German Monarchy, so they chose not to copy their fashions, which is why the Christmas tree did not catch on in Britain at that time. A few families chose to have Christmas trees, of course, though their reasons for doing so were probably more related to the influence of their German neighbors than from copying the styles of the Royal Court.

A Regency-style tree in Colonial Williamsburg dedicated to the Prince of Wales

The primary decorations of the time were Tinsels, silver wire ornaments, candles and small beads. All these had been manufactured in Germany and East Europe since the 17th century. The custom was to have several small trees on tables, one for each member of the family, with that persons gifts stacked on the table under the tree.

Sample of small trees on tables being set up at Windsor Castle

In The Early Reign of Victoria

Queen Victoria as a child was familiar with the custom and a tree was placed in her room every Christmas. In her journal for Christmas Eve 1832, the delighted 13-year-old princess wrote, "After dinner... we then went into the drawing-room near the dining-room... There were two large round tables on which were placed two trees hung with lights and sugar ornaments. All the presents being placed round the trees..."

In 1848, the popular royals, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were illustrated in the Illustrated London News. They were standing with their children around a Christmas Tree. Unlike the previous royal family, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at Court immediately became fashionable - not only in Britain, but with the fashion-conscious East Coast American Society, too. The English Christmas Tree had arrived!

Victorian Hand-made Ornaments

Decorations were still of a 'home-made' variety. Young Ladies spent hours at Christmas Crafts, quilting snowflakes and stars, sewing little pouches for secret gifts and paper baskets with sugared almonds in them. Small bead decorations, fine drawn out silver tinsel came from Germany together with beautiful Angels to sit at the top of the tree. Candles were often placed into wooden hoops for safety.

The Mid-Victorian Tree

Rauschgoldengel

In 1850's Lauscha began to produce fancy shaped glass bead garlands for the trees, and short garlands made from necklace 'bugles' and beads. These were readily available in Germany but not produced in sufficient quantities to export to Britain. The Rauschgoldengel was a common sight. Literally, 'Tingled-angel', bought from the Thuringian Christmas markets, and dressed in pure gilded tin.

The 1860's English Tree had become more innovative than the delicate trees of earlier decades. Small toys were popularly hung on the branches, but still most gifts were placed on the table under the tree.

Fancy Glass Ornament

By the 1870's, Glass ornaments were being imported into Britain from Lauscha, in Thuringia. It became a status symbol to have glass ornaments on the tree, the more one had, the better ones status! Still many retained and displayed their home-made articles. The Empire was growing, and the popular tree topper was the Nation's Flag.  Some trees even displayed flags of the Empire and allied countries, making them very patriotic.

High Victorian Trees

The 1880's Christmas Trees became a glorious hodgepodge of everything one could cram on it; or by complete contrast were decorated in a delicately balanced manner, with coordinated colors, shapes and style

Floor standing trees became more popular. The limited availability of decorations in earlier decades had kept trees confined to table tops. Now with decorations as well as crafts more popular than ever, there was no excuse. Still a status symbol, the larger the tree - the more affluent the family which sported it.

Sample High Victorian Tree

The High Victorian tree of the 1890's was a child's joy to behold! As tall as the room, and crammed with glitter and tinsel and toys galore. Even the 'middleclasses' managed to over-decorate their trees. It was a case of 'anything goes'. Everything that could possibly go on a tree went onto it.  (An apt description of our tree, too, I think).

Themed Victorian Christmas Tree

By 1900 themed trees were popular. A color theme set in ribbons or balls, a topical idea such as an Oriental Tree, or an Egyptian Tree. They were to be the last of the great Christmas Trees for some time. With the death of Victoria in 1903, the Nation went into mourning and fine trees were not really in evidence until the nostalgia of the Dickensian fashion of the 1930's.

The British tree in the 20th century

Family Table Top Tree

After Queen Victoria died, the country slipped into mourning, and the tree somehow died with her in many homes. While some families and community groups still had large tinsel strewn trees, many opted for the more convenient table top tree. These were available in a variety of sizes, and the artificial tree, particularly the Goose Feather Tree, became popular. These were originally invented in the 1880's in Germany, to combat some of the damage being done to Fir trees in the name of Christmas.

The Christmas Tree in America

Just as the first trees introduced into Britain did not immediately take off, the early trees introduced into America by the Hessian soldiers were not recorded in any particular quantity. The Pennsylvanian German settlements had community trees as early as 1747.

Celebrate Christmas, and you'll pay a five shilling fine!

It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims's second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out "pagan mockery" of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against "the heathen traditions" of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated "that sacred event." In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.

Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

A Colonial Style Tree

Americans did not even begin to conceive of Christmas as a national holiday until the middle of the Nineteenth century. In colonial times, Americans of different sects and different national origins kept the holiday (or did not) in ways they carried over from the Old World. Puritans, for instance, attempted to ignore Christmas because the Bible was silent on the topic. Virginia planters took the occasion to feast, dance, gamble, hunt and visit, perpetuating what they believed to be the old Christmas customs in English manors. Even as late as the early nineteenth century, many Americans hardly took notice of the holiday at all.

A Hodgepodge of Traditions

As large as America is, the holiday tended to have 'pockets' of customs relating to the immigrants who had settled in a particular area, and it was not until the telegraph and telephone opened up communication in the 19th century, that such customs began to spread. Thus references to decorated trees in America before about the middle of the 19th century are very rare.  

Like the holiday, Christmas Trees themselves were introduced into several pockets - the German Hessian Soldiers took their tree customs from the 18th century. In Texas, Cattle Barons from Britain took their customs from the 19th century, and the East Coast Society copied the English Court tree customs.

Punched Tin Ornaments

In 19th Century, American settlers from all over Europe displayed the customs of their origins. Decorations were not easy to find in the shanty towns of the West, so settlers there began to make their own decorations. Tin was pierced to create lights and lanterns to hold candles which could shine through the holes. Decorations of all kinds were cutout, stitched and glued. The General Stores were hunting grounds for old magazines with pictures, rolls of Cotton Batting (Cotton Wool), and tinsel, which was occasionally sent from Germany or brought in from the Eastern States. The Paper 'Putz' or Christmas Crib was a popular feature under the tree, especially in the Moravian Dutch communities which settled in Pennsylvania.

The mid-Nineteenth Century

By the mid-nineteenth century, however, communication and transportation revolutions made once isolated parts of the country acutely aware of each other. Immigration vastly widened the ethnic and religious pluralism that had been a part of American settlement from its beginning. Science challenged religion. New wealth and larger markets superseded old. Population swelled. The pace of life accelerated.

Like today, the swirl of change caused many to long for an earlier time, one in which they imagined that old and good values held sway in cohesive and peaceful communities. It also made them reconsider the notion of 'community' in larger terms, on a national scale, but modeled on the ideal of a family gathered at the hearth. At this cross-roads of progress and nostalgia, Americans found in Christmas a holiday that ministered to their needs. The many Christmases celebrated across the land began to resolve into a more singular and widely celebrated home holiday.

Sample decorations used from 1850-1859

By the 1850s, the majority of Americans had fallen in love with the German custom of Christmas Trees. The media introduced the custom even more widely, inspiring Americans throughout the nation to adopt the tradition as their own.  And, as the tree gained prominence in front parlors, it also assumed a place in commerce. During the 1850s, town squares began to bristle with trees cut for seasonable profits.

The American Civil War and later

Sample 19th Century American Tree

The Civil War intensified Christmas' appeal. Its sentimental celebration of family matched the yearnings of soldiers and those they left behind. Its message of peace and goodwill spoke to the most immediate prayers of all Americans. Yet the northern victory in 1865 determined the popularity and shape of the America's Christmas. Now unchallenged, customs and symbols of Yankee origin and preference came to stand for the American Christmas.

Seamlessly, the 'German-ness' of the tree receded, as Americans adopted it into their homes, and not just Christians. Even in the homes of 'the Hebrew brethren', 'Christmas trees bloomed', noted a Philadelphia newspaper in 18'77. '[T]he little ones of Israel were as happy over them as Christian children'. By 1900, one American in five was estimated to have a Christmas tree.

Candles and glass ornaments

At first, the decoration of these fragrant evergreens reflected the whim of folk tradition. Celebrants added nuts, strings of popcorn or beads, oranges, lemons, candies and homemade trinkets. However, widely-read newspapers and ladies' magazines raised the standards for ornamentation. Homely affectations gave way to more uniform and sophisticated ones, the old style overtaken by the urge to make the tree a showpiece for the artistic arrangement of 'glittering baubles, the stars, angels, etc'.

Tree decoration soon became big business. As early as 1870, American businessmen began to import large quantities of ornaments from Germany to be sold on street corners and, later, in toy shops and variety stores. Vendors hawked glass ornaments and balls in bright colous, tin cut in all imaginable shapes and wax angels with spun glass wings. 'So many charming little ornaments can now be bought ready to decorate Christmas trees that it seems almost a waste of time to make them at home', one advertisement declared.

Glass ornaments were imported into America around 1880, where they were sold through stores such as FW Woolworth. They were quickly followed by American patents for electric lights (1882), and metal hooks for safer hanging of decorations onto the trees (1892)

  

A close-up on how Britain's Royal Family inspired Americans to adopt the Christmas Tree Tradition

Britain

As the 1840s began, Christmas, like many other social customs which bonded society, needed new advocates. Two of the most powerful of these were the new monarch Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, whose influence on the celebration brought it into a much wider acceptance . Although the couple created far less then they are often credited with, their simple support and embracing of Christmas was influential and gave the holiday a tremendous boost.

Their personal delight and interest in Christmas became apparent soon after their marriage in 1840. That, combined with their emphasis on a happy domestic life and pleasure in the raising of their children, seems to spurred others to view Christmas as a particularly special annual event. The year-end holiday provided a respite from the daily grind of everyday life, and as a couple Victoria and Albert appeared to have enjoyed the times when domestic celebrations and rituals took center stage in their lives. Victoria herself described Christmases spent with Albert and her growing family as ‘a most dear happy time’.

Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and children by Franz Xaver Winterhalter 1846

Details of the royal family’s Christmases at Windsor Castle in the 1840s were spread widely by newspapers, periodicals and word of mouth. Victoria and Albert's activities set styles among much of the population, particularly among the growing middle classes. Given the royal stamp of approval, Christmas  was once again fashionable. In addition, the royal couple’s focus on their children at Christmas was a very important model, as Christmas until this time had largely been an adult festival. From the 1840s onward, children gradually became more central to the celebration. The popular view today that Christmas is ‘really for children’ would, however, have surprised the Victorians as even they still saw it as a festival meant equally for adults.

Children Mustn't See Until Christmas Day

Each year from 1841, the royal family decorated trees under which they would place gifts for one another.  In 1842 a newspaper advert for Christmas trees makes clear their fashionable cachet, German origins and association with children and gift-giving. An illustrated book, The Christmas Tree, describing their use and origins in detail, was on sale in December 1844. In 1847, Prince Albert wrote: "I must now seek in the children an echo of what Ernest [his brother] and I were in the old time, of what we felt and thought; and their delight in the Christmas-trees is not less than ours used to be".In fact, in 1847 Albert decorated the trees for the children himself.

The Queen's Christmas tree at Windsor Castle published in The Illustrated London News, 1848, and republished in Godey's Lady's Book, Philadelphia in December 1850.

However, it was the tree of 1848 which was to have the greatest impact on the celebration of Christmas. In that year, the Illustrated London News printed a picture of the royal family, showing five children round the tree with their parents and grandmother. This image was widely published in periodicals at home and abroad. The London Times of December 27th, 1848, described it thus:

"The tree employed … is a young fir, about eight feet high, and has six tiers of branches. On each branch are arranged a dozen wax tapers. Pendant from the branches are elegant trays, baskets, and bonbonniers, and other placements for sweetmeats of the most varied kind, and all forms, colours, and degrees of beauty."

A color representation of the Victoria and Albert Christmas Tree

The royal couple also gave trees to schools and army barracks, and the fashion spread. From the late 1840s, a German springelbaum became a must for homes throughout the land. Gradually, through various media, word spread from the royal household that Christmas was indeed a ‘right joyous festival’, suitable for the time.

In fewer than ten years, the use of Christmas Trees in better-off homes was widespread. By 1856, a northern provincial newspaper contained an advert alluding casually to a family tree for Christmas as it reported on the accidental death of a woman in Somerset, whose dress caught fire as she lit the tapers on their Christmas tree. Even so, the custom of a tree in the British home had not yet spread down the social scale, as a report from Berlin in 1858 contrasts the situation there where "Every family has its own" with that of Britain, where Christmas trees were still the preserve of the wealthy or the "romantic."

North America

Godey's Lady's Book Reprint 1850 - no tiara or mustache

The woodcut of the British Royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, originally published in 1848, was copied in Godey's Lady's Book in 1850. Godey's copied it exactly, except for the removal of the Queen's tiara and Prince Albert's mustache, to remake the engraving into an American scene.

The republished Godey's image became the first widely circulated picture of a decorated evergreen Christmas tree in America. Art historian Karal Ann Marling called Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, shorn of their royal trappings, "the first influential American Christmas tree". Folk-culture historian Alfred Lewis Shoemaker states, "In all of America there was no more important medium in spreading the Christmas tree in the decade 1850–60 than Godey's Lady's Book".

Victoria was very popular, not only with her subjects, but with Americans as well.  So, what was done at the British court became immediately fashionable—not only there, but also with our fashion-conscious East Coast American Society. The image was reprinted in 1860, and by the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become common in America. So, America, it seems, is indebted to Britain for making the Christmas tree as popular as it is today in all walks of life.

Wishing you and yours a warm and happy holiday season!
Kathryn

The Christmas Tree's Public Persona - #ChristmasTrees #AdventCalendar2013 #PublicCeremonies

In conjunction with Ana's Advent Calendar 2013,

I'm doing a post here on the Christmas trees being dressed in public

Since the early 20th century, it has become common in many cities, towns, and department stores to put up public Christmas trees outdoors.  Well known public displays are:

Macy's Lenox Square Atlanta

The Macy's Great Tree in Atlanta - (a tradition since 1948 - 2013 lighting scheduled at Lenox Square Mall on Thanksgiving night, Thursday, November 28, 2013).

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree - New York City

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in New York City - (2013 lighting scheduled on Wednesday, December 4th, 2013).

Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree - London, England

 The Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree gift from Oslo, Norway in London (a traditon since 1947 - 2013 lighting scheduled on Thursday, December 5, 2013).

U.S. National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C.

 The United States' National Christmas Tree in Washington DC (2013 lighting Ceremony Friday, December 6th, 2013).

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree 

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree dates back to the Depression Era days. The tallest tree displayed at Rockefeller Center came in 1948 and was a Norway Spruce that measured in at 100 feet tall and hailed from Killingworth, Connecticut.  The first tree at Rockefeller Center was placed in 1931. It was a small unadorned tree placed by construction workers at the center of the construction site. Two years later, another tree was placed there, this time with lights. These days, the giant Rockefeller Center tree is laden with over 25,000 Christmas lights.

The United States National Christmas Tree

The United States' National Christmas Tree  has been lit each year since 1923 on the South Lawn of the White House. Today, the lighting of the National Christmas Tree is part of what has become a major holiday event at the White House. A few notable exceptions to the ceremony occurred when President Jimmy Carter lit only the crowning star atop the tree in 1979 in honour of the Americans being held hostage in Iran. The same was true in 1980, except that the tree was fully lit for 417 seconds, one second for each day the hostages had been held in captivity.

Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree

The Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree s a special commemorative gift from the City of Oslo, Norway as a token of appreciation for the British support of Norwegian resistance during the Second World War.  The annual lighting ceremony involves the Mayor of Oslo presenting the gift to the Mayor of London.

Other cities displaying "gifted" trees are:

Boston, where the tree is a gift from the province of Nova Scotia as thanks for rapid deployment of supplies and rescuers to the 1917 ammunition ship explosion that leveled the city of Halifax.

Newcastle upon Tyne, where the main civic Christmas tree is an annual gift from the city of Bergen, in thanks for the part played by soldiers from Newcastle in liberating Bergen from Nazi occupation.

And in addition to the tree in London, Norway also annually gifts a Christmas tree to Washington, D.C. as a symbol of friendship between Norway and the US and as an expression of gratitude from Norway for the help received from the US during World War II.

The Traditional Lifetime of a Christmas Tree

Both setting up and taking down a Christmas tree are associated with specific dates. Traditionally, Christmas trees were not brought in and decorated until Christmas Eve (24 December) or, for those whose traditions celebrated Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day, the 23 December, and then removed the day after Twelfth Night (5 January).  To have a tree up before or after these dates was even considered bad luck.  Fortunately, that's not the case any more, since we still had our tree up long after Twelfth Night and the Epiphany this year.

Our tree and decorations on Christmas Eve 2012

In many areas, it has become customary to set up one's Christmas tree at the beginning of the Advent season. Some families in the U.S. and Canada will put up a Christmas tree soon after the American Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November), and Christmas decorations can show up even earlier in retail stores, often the day after Halloween (31 October).

Other households do not put up their tree until the second week of December, and leave it up until 6 January (Epiphany). In Germany, traditionally the tree is put up on 24 December and taken down on 7 January, though many start one or two weeks earlier, while in Roman Catholic homes the tree may be kept until February 2 (Candlemas).

Our 2012 rotating tree, Decorations and Gifts

Our 2012 tree saw Candlemas come and go, and watched the Easter Bunny hop on by, too.  It was down, however, by the time the ghosties and goblins came out to play at the end of October, so it never turned into a Halloween tree.  When we took it down, I'm not going to say for certain, but I think it may have caught a few of our neighborhood Labor Day fireworks before it was gently laid to rest in its green plastic resting place.

Not our tree.  Honest.  Though it could've been

For a preview into the history of the Christmas Tree and more information about the month-long event, please visit Ana's Advent Calendar.

Holiday Gifts of Love - Candy Canes

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This is my third article on Christmas Traditions.

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As part of the Holiday Gifts of Christmas Series, I thought I'd blog about the candy I associate the most with the holiday.  Below is the information I collected from various sources on the web.

The Candy Cane

The origin of the candy cane goes back over 350 years, when candy-makers both professional and amateur were making hard sugar sticks. The original candy was straight and completely white in color.

Around the seventeenth century, European-Christians began to adopt the use of Christmas trees as part of their Christmas celebrations. They made special decorations for their trees from foods like cookies and sugar-stick candy. The first historical reference to the familiar cane shape goes back to 1670, when the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany, bent the sugar-sticks into canes to represent a shepherd's staff. The all-white candy canes were given out to children during the long-winded nativity services.

The clergymen's custom of handing out candy canes during Christmas services spread throughout Europe and later to America. The canes were still white, but sometimes the candy-makers would add sugar-roses to decorate the canes further.

The first historical reference to the candy cane being in America goes back to 1847, when a German immigrant called August Imgard decorated the Christmas tree in his Wooster, Ohio home with candy canes.

The Stripes

About fifty years later the first red-and-white striped candy canes appeared. No one knows who exactly invented the stripes, but Christmas cards prior to the year 1900 showed only all-white candy canes. Christmas cards after 1900 showed illustrations of striped candy canes. Around the same time, candy-makers added peppermint and wintergreen flavors to their candy canes and those flavors then became the traditional favorites.

Sweet Secrets of the Candy Cane

There are many other legends and beliefs surrounding the humble candy cane. Many of them depict the candy cane as a secret symbol for Christianity used during the times when Christian were living under more oppressive circumstances. It was said that the cane was shaped like a "J" for Jesus. The red-and-white stripes represented Christ's blood and purity. The three red stripes symbolized the Holy Trinity. The hardness of the candy represented the Church's foundation on solid rock and the peppermint flavor represented the use of hyssop, an herb referred to in the Old Testament. There is no historical evidence to support these claims, quite the contrary, but they are lovely thoughts.

A recipe for straight peppermint candy sticks, white with colored stripes, was published in 1844. The candy cane has been mentioned in literature since 1866, was first mentioned in association with Christmas in 1874, and as early as 1882 was hung on Christmas trees. Chicago confectioners the Bunte Brothers filed the earliest patents for candy cane making machines in the early 1920s.

Holiday Gifts of Love - Christmas Plants

To enter comments for the blog hop, please scroll down or click "Holiday Gifts of Love Blog Hop" to reach the original post.  Comments posted against this article will not be counted for the main prize, so please click the link above.

This is my second article on Christmas Traditions.

 To enter the blog hop scroll down or click here.

As part of the Holiday Gifts of Christmas Series, I thought I'd blog about the three plants I associate the most with the holiday.  Below is the information I collected from various sources on the web.

Mistletoe

The Druids believed mistletoe fell from heaven and grew onto a tree that sprang from Earth. Mistletoe thus represented the joining of heaven and earth, and God's reconciliation with mankind. A kiss under mistletoe symbolized acceptance and reconciliation.

The custom of using mistletoe to decorate houses at Christmas is a survival of the Druid and other pre-Christian traditions. According to custom, the mistletoe must not touch the ground between its cutting and its removal as the last of Christmas greens at Candlemas; it may remain hanging through the year, often to preserve the house from lightning or fire, until it is replaced the following Christmas Eve. Although the tradition has spread throughout the English-speaking world, it is largely unknown in the rest of Europe.

The Greeks also thought that it had mystical powers and down through the centuries it became associated with many folklore customs. In the Middle Ages and later, branches of mistletoe were hung from ceilings to ward off evil spirits. In Europe they were placed over house and stable doors to prevent the entrance of witches. It was also believed that the oak mistletoe could extinguish fire.

In Scandinavia, mistletoe was considered a plant of peace, under which enemies could declare a truce or warring spouses kiss and make-up. Later, the eighteenth-century English credited with a certain magical appeal called a kissing ball. At Christmas time a young lady standing under a ball of mistletoe, brightly trimmed with evergreens, ribbons, and ornaments, cannot refuse to be kissed. Such a kiss could mean deep romance or lasting friendship and goodwill.

The earliest documented case of kissing under the mistletoe dates from 16th century England, a custom that was apparently very popular at that time. According to custom, a man and a woman who meet under a hanging of mistletoe were obliged to kiss. The custom may be of Scandinavian origin. It was described in 1820 by American author Washington Irving in his "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon":

"The mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses and kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases."

Poinsettia

The plant's association with Christmas began in 16th century Mexico, where legend tells of a young girl who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus' birthday. The tale goes that the child was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson "blossoms" sprouted from the weeds and became beautiful poinsettias. From the 17th century, Franciscan friars in Mexico included the plants in their Christmas celebrations.

The shape of the poinsettia flower and leaves are sometimes thought as a symbol of the Star of Bethlehem which led the Wise Men to Jesus. The red colored leaves symbolize the blood  sacrifice through the crucifixion of Jesus. The white leaves represent his purity.In Spain it is known as "Flor de Pascua", meaning "Easter flower". In both Chile and Peru, the plant became known as "Crown of the Andes".

Poinsettias are popular Christmas decorations in homes, churches, offices, and elsewhere across North America. In the United States, December 12 is National Poinsettia Day.

Holly

In pagan times, Holly was thought to be a male plant and Ivy a female plant. An old tradition from the Midlands of England says that whatever one was brought into the house first over winter, tells you whether the man or woman of the house would rule that year! But it was unlucky to bring either into a house before Christmas Eve.

Today, Christians consider holly symbolic of Jesus Christ in two ways. The red berries represent the blood that Jesus shed on the cross on the day he was crucified. Legend states that holly berries were originally white, but that the blood Christ shed for the sins of humankind stained the berries forever red. A holly's pointed leaves symbolize the crown of thorns placed on Jesus' head before he died on the cross.

The early Christians also believed the fact that the Holly helps in driving away the evil spirits as it is endowed with some magical powers. So, during Christmas time, the Holly was usually hung on doors, windows to prevent the entry of witches and evil spirits.

In Scandinavia the plant is known as the Christ Thorn.