The history of holly by Helen
Like many of our Christmas traditions and customs their origins do not lie in Christianity which you would expect given Christmas is one of the important Christian holidays – no they have their roots in pagan worship.
The Druids are thought to have revered holly for its evergreen leaves when everything else had died or shed their leaves. It was one of the few plants that was available for them to use to decorate their homes in winter and when they wanted to celebrate the winter solstice.
Holly was also important in the Roman Saturnalia festival which took place in late December. The festival was originally introduced to lift moral after a significant defeat of the Roman forces and generally involved role reversal between the masters and slaves. It was one of the most popular festivals and involved a lot of tomfoolery. Part of the customs were for Romans to give each other holly wreaths and use them to decorate images of Saturn with.
There is speculation that Christians took on some of the pagan customs in order to avoid their faith being discovered, but I suspect that in the winter when there isn’t much growing to provide a little cheer you use whatever is available. So when Christians started to celebrate the birth of Jesus at the end of the year it was natural for the customs to overlap.
Holly has many superstitions associated with it. It has been used in homes to protect them from thunder, lightning and witches! Apparently if a sprig of holly is placed on top of a beehive it will protect it though I don’t know if this is a tradition which is practiced now.
For me holly is one of the few jolly looking plants around in December. Plus when you cut sprigs of it to decorate your house it doesn’t dry out too quickly with the berries falling off. You can use it to make Christmas garlands to decorate your fireplace. You can put sprigs over the top of pictures to provide a sort of green frame. However, the most popular use for holly in the period leading up to Christmas is in wreaths to hang on the front door.
You can buy wreaths from most garden centres leading up to Christmas or you can make your own. All you need is a simple wire frame which you can get from a florist, some florists wire, some moss (which if your lawn is like mine you can rake up), lots of holly preferably with berries, some other evergreens to provide interest, and a large bow.
Start off by stuffing the frame with the moss, packing it in as tightly as possible. Then starting on the outside add the holly, laying each sprig so it overlaps the one before (to hide the stem) and attaching them to the frame with the florists wire. Work your way round adding some other evergreen material to give variety. When you have covered your frame, attach you bow and then hang the finished wreath up on the front door. However, I must confess to buying mine most years as holly is very scratchy!!
Finally, don’t forget that all important sprig of holly to put on top of your Christmas Pudding.
If you would like to read more wonderful horticultural history and how tos from Helen, visit her blog The Patient Gardener.
