Holiday Decorations To Christmas Decorating.

Mistletoe for Christmas decorating has a special meaning for the holidays today. The hanging of the mistletoe in the doorways creates many plots and diversions to receive a kiss under it. The mistletoe kissing tradition comes from the Norse myths. Frigga, one of the gods, gave her son Balder a charm of mistletoe to protect him from the elements. But because mistletoe grows neither from the water or the earth nor from fire or air, it grows on trees, it held the power to harm him. One of the other god's arrows made of mistletoe struck Balder down, and his mother cried tears of white berries. She brought her son back to life and vowed to kiss anyone who rested beneath the plant. So the mistletoe kissing tradition began. In the early days mistletoe was called the all-healer in Celtic speech and in various European countries mistletoe is believed to possess marvelous powers of healing sickness or even averting misfortune. It was also believed to be the remedy against poisons and to make barren animals fruitful. There are traces in Britain of the sacredness of mistletoe as well as holly.

Holly, with its dark green spiky leaves and red berries, was also believed to have magical powers and the ability to drive demons away. Germans considered holly to be a good luck charm against the hostile forces of nature. A Shropshire custom was to leave the holly and ivy up until Candlemas, while the mistletoes were preserved until the next holiday season and hung so that good fortune would follow till the next holiday season. In the early days food was also central to the holiday decorations. As the Christmas season grew near huge batches of cookies, candies, and sugared fruits were prepared for food and as Christmas Decorations. As mentioned above not all the early Christmas decorations in the home came from the kitchen, the woods and fields provided an abundance of straw, pods, flowers, and foliage for Christmas Decorations also. Select the following link to view our Christmas wreaths, garlands, Christmas greenery and Christmas ribbon. 

As far back as the fifteenth century, Stow's of London noted that the custom at Christmas was that every household, parish and church be decked with items of ivy, holm, bays and other affordable seasonal greens. Many elders of England will recall the old English mode of church decor of sprigs of holly and yew stuck into the high pews making the churches a miniature forest. The decor extended outside when the city light poles, standards and in London were decorated for the Christmas season. The Christmas trimming evolved next into trimmings of beads, knots of bright ribbon, paper stars and lace bags filled with candies were all homemade by hand. Nuts, seeds, berries, popcorn and other homemade materials civilized the wild beauty of the past. The stringing of popcorn and cranberries are still in use today and purchased in the Christmas store. Tree decor was now open to creative and inspirational holiday decorating ideas that are still with us today.

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