The Legend of Christmas Holly

The Legend of the Christmas Holly has deep spiritual roots that are planted in several cultures. Ironically, no one really knows how these legends began, but here are a few we found most intriguing:

• During Roman times, the holly was used to honor Saturn, which was their god of agriculture. For their festivals, the Romans traditionally gave wreaths of holly to one another. This symbolized bounty and luck, which today adds to our legend of the Christmas Holly by offering it as a year-end plant to portend a new year of luck and bounty for the receiver.
• The Celtics first used holly during spiritual ceremonies. At Christmas time, the small twigs from holly trees were placed in the hair of their holy men during rituals. The thorny leaves of holly trees were believed to be protection against bad spirits.
• However, it is in the Christian Tradition that we believe the legend of the Christmas Holly was born. The bristly leaves of holly were correlated to the crown of thorns that Jesus was forced to wear during the crucifixion. The bright red berries of holly were likened to Jesus' blood shed for the salvation of humans and cleansing of sins. It was also said that the wood of the holly was the same wood that was used to make the cross where Jesus was crucified. Some would even go as far as saying that the word 'holly' itself was taken from the word 'holy', thus saying that his plant is also a holy plant.

For decorative and aesthetic purposes though, the red holy holly berries give a splash of color to the traditional white landscape during wintertime and particularly Christmas. The bright red color indicates happiness, passion, and love.

The bright red found in the berries is almost always present in the patterns of usual Christmas decor. In fact, the red and green in holly are the most commonly thought of colors for the season. For this reason, the magical color combination will continue to be tied to the legend of Christmas holly.