Holly, mistletoe entwined with holidays

Victorian England did deck the halls with boughs of holly

By Larry A. Sagers
Deseret Morning News

What would the Christmas be without the wonderful plants we enjoy?

Christmas trees, boughs of holly, mistletoe, poinsettias, amaryllis, Norfolk Island pines and a host of plants add cheer to our celebrations.

How each of these plants came to be associated with Christmas is a fascinating story. Like many customs, they had their origins in ancient rites that were adopted into the Christian celebrations.

The shiny green leaves and showy red berries of the holly plants are festive additions to the Christmas season. While the Germans decorated tall green fir trees with colored paper, fruits and sweets, Victorian England hung bows of holly, ivy and mistletoe on their walls and mantels.

Mistletoe grows on a cat's claw acacia. The English kissing under the mistletoe shocked American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Larry Sagers

Many ancient Europeans perceived holly as a plant with medicinal curative powers. Later, its red berries and spring leaves came to represent the crucifixion, symbols of Christ's suffering. In an old English carol, "The Holly and the Ivy," the white holly flowers represent Mary and the red berries represent Christ's blood.

Fresh green holly — not balsam fir or Scotch pine — is the "wintry emblem" referred to in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." Londoners decked their shops, homes and churches with holly in Dickens' time, and Henry Mayhew, a Victorian merchant, estimated London merchants sold 250,000 bushels of holly during the 1851 Christmas season.

German legends said if families brought smooth, thornless holly indoors for Christmas, the wife would rule the household in the coming year. The husband would rule if the leaves were thorny. Checking with local retailers, I found that they did not segregate theirs on this basis, so you may want to choose holly arrangements carefully.

Holly plants are dioecious (either male or female). Female hollies have berries, male hollies do not. But the female plants cannot make the berries alone. They need male holly and bees or moths to pollinate the holly flowers.

Holly grows in Utah if you have the right microclimate. You need well-drained soil without clay and without alkali. Some older plants in the area are so large they are treelike in size. If you are looking for holly, visit your nursery next spring. There are several hardy hollies for our area, including the "Blue" series (Blue Boy, Blue Girl, Blue Angel, etc.), which can survive most winters in the lower valleys.

The leaf shape, color and spininess of English holly are all highly variable. Native to southern and central Europe, the plant can grow to 40 feet tall and 25 feet wide. Larry Sagers

Another plant associated with Christmas is mistletoe, where legends abound of its special powers. The Druids worshipped mistletoe as a magical healer and harvested it with golden sickles.

Early Christians condemned mistletoe as evil and pagan. But that didn't stop the custom of kissing under the mistletoe from becoming a Christmas ritual — a holy kiss of peace and pardon, passed by priests throughout the congregation. Later, this custom evolved into stealing a kiss from anyone found standing under the mistletoe.

The custom of kissing under the mistletoe caught on in England long before it became popular in Puritan America. Writer Nathaniel Hawthorne discovered kissing boughs in Liverpool in 1855 and reportedly was shocked by continual and licentious use.

Washington Irving wrote in his "Sketch Book" of "one berry and one kiss." A man could kiss a woman under the mistletoe if he picked a berry each time he puckered up. Once all of the berries were gone, the kissing stopped. Mistletoe balls were cut from the tree and then sold. Since these weighed 30 pounds or more, there were plenty of berries to go around. By the turn of the century, the mistletoe bough and kiss became an American custom.

Despite the romantic notions mistletoe conjures up, it is actually a parasite, deadly to trees. It grows into the host plant and steals nutrients. The berries on the plant are also poisonous, so never hang cut mistletoe where children can eat the berries.

There are several types of mistletoe and hundreds of species. In northern Utah, the dwarf mistletoe is a common pests of forest trees, but it does not attack landscape ornamentals.

Larry A. Sagers is the regional horticulturist, Utah State University Extension at Thanksgiving Point.