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Deck the Halls

(c) Ross Hoddinott/2020VISION

Fresh evergreens as Christmas decorations are a lovely way to celebrate. There’s nothing to beat the natural look and evocative scent, so why not bring a bit of wildness into your home this midwinter. Dr Cath explains more about the Shropshire origins of natural Christmas decorations in this latest blog.

Evergreens have been brought into the house as decorations for the midwinter festival since well before Christianity, as symbols of the continuity of life through the dark season. They were seen as protecting the home and family from a variety of evils.

Holly was a powerful fertility symbol, and a charm against witches, evil spirits, lightning and house goblins, whilst ivy in the house at midwinter was thought to keep the Devil away for twelve months. In Christianity, holly was adopted as a symbol of Christ’s crown of thorns, the red berries a symbol of his blood and evergreens in general as a metaphor for life after death.

Scot's pine

Scot's pine (Pinus sylvestris) (c) Mark Hamblin/2020VISION

Druids decorated glades of Scots pine with lights and shiny objects at the winter solstice – the tree covered in stars was a representation of the Divine Light. These rituals and beliefs were easily absorbed into Christian celebrations.

There are more practical reasons for bringing in evergreens too – pine has a range of healing properties, with the resin and needles being used to treat respiratory problems which are common in the cold, damp winter months.

For example, pine needle pillows can help relieve catarrh. Pine is also used in the Bach Flower Remedies to treat despondency and despair, which might so easily be the result of Seasonal Affective Disorder. The scent of evergreens freshens winter-stuffy rooms, helps to lift the spirits and drives away the winter blues.

Gathering berried holly was once an important winter bonus to rural incomes in Shropshire. ‘Slike’ holly – the smooth leaves from higher up the tree – was particularly valuable. Whixall cottagers have supplemented their income by making Christmas wreaths since the early 1900s.

Holly wreath

Holly Wreath

Sphagnum moss was gathered to cover the wire frames, and local holly was sourced to decorate them. In its heyday, the industry exported thousands of wreaths every Christmas. Children as young as five years old helped their families to construct the wreaths. For some this would have been one of the few chances to earn actual cash.

Holly and mistletoe auctions have been held at Tenbury Wells on the borders of Shropshire and Worcestershire for 160 years, providing a market for gatherers in the south of the county, while the Whixall wreaths were collected by wholesalers for the Liverpool and Manchester markets

A more prosaic use for holly was as winter fodder for livestock. Its leaves have one of the highest calorific values of all trees browsed by beasts, and are highly nutritious. The trees were pollarded to provide a fresh accessible crop each year, with the cut branches left to wilt before feeding to the cattle and sheep. Ancient hollies cropped in this way can still be seen on our reserve The Hollies, near Minsterley.

There are many forgotten farmyard traditions associated with ivy – farmers used to feed their cattle a sprig of ivy before midday on Christmas Day to fend off evil in the coming year. The last record of this taking place was a farm in Shropshire in the 1930s.

Hollies landscape

The Hollies Nature Reserve (c) Mark Sisson

If you fancy growing your own Christmas decorations, remember that holly trees are either male or female – you need a female one to get berries. The popular variegated garden holly Golden King is, in fact, a queen, while Silver Queen, with its silver-edged dark green leaves, is male. In folklore, holly has a male persona as the winter king of the forest, with the twining ivy taking the female role. A custom from the Midlands claimed the plant brought into the house first dictated who would rule the household that year. Holly meant the man and ivy meant the woman. 

Holly

Holly berries Ilex aquifolium (c) Scott Petrek

In Shropshire, there is a tradition that a piece of holly from the Christmas decorations should be left when all the rest is taken down on Twelfth Night, and allowed to dry. It should be used to light the fire to cook the pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. Elsewhere in the country, people would burn all the Christmas holly by Twelfth Night to preserve the new year's good luck.

Whatever you believe, evergreens have a historical place in our winter decoration. Even the most sceptical might feel moved to bring in a few sprigs of holly for the sheer beauty of the thing, and, of course, just in case those house goblins should prove troublesome!

 

Dr Cath Price

Membership and Engagement Officer

Shropshire Wildlife Trust

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