Evergreens and Deep Winter Decorating

Why evergreens are so a part of winter holidays.

Cercocarpus ledifolius
Item # 34340 		Cercocarpus ledifolius
Curl-Leaf or Evergreen Mahogany

each $8.29
3 to 6 $7.99
7 or more $7.79
  • Topic: Trees & Shrubs
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: holiday, winter, decorating, evergreen, Other, christmas, holidays, decorations
  • Date: December 2003

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For years I’ve lived in the heart of a forest but never made anything Christmasy from evergreen boughs. Oh, I think last year I cut a branch off a tree in my yard and stuck it on the door. But that was as close to evergreen decorations as I’ve come. Until this year.

For some reason I got serious about decorating, and in early November started making the gaudiest a table runner you’ve ever seen. Then the other day I headed to the edge of the woods. Suddenly I needed to make a garland.

While walking in freshly fallen snow, the significance of my search immediately took me into an old ancient tradition. We’re blessed with lots of light and blue skies throughout the year in the Southwest; but many places aren’t. And trimming a house with evergreens during December is a direct link to what that activity really means.

It’s not by accident that Christmas and Hanukkah come so close to the winter solstice. This midwinter mark was the year’s turning point for early people. Sheryl Ann Karas, author of “The Solstice Evergreen,” writes, “Our ancestors lived in a world in which the natural environment was the only environment.” She goes on to say that early survival was based on noticing the interdependence of everything around them, and the “assumption of the unity of a living world was the basis for most religions.”

Karas, a Jewish woman who became fascinated with the Christmas tree, researched cultures all over the world and found hundreds of celebrations that took place during the dark days of winter. Though all different, the festivities usually included the boughs of evergreens as a focus of the merriment. From sprigs to branches to entire trees evergreens represented the never-ending cycle of the natural world.

For people living in the cold, far northern climes of Scandinavia and Germany plants that stayed green year round were revered as having a lot of power. Garlands of evergreens easily graced dark homes and served as a reminder that the sun will indeed return.

Tree trimming, an activity still enjoyed by many, probably got its start when people worshipped outdoors in groves of trees. To honor the largest tree, presents were placed beneath it. In China people placed sacred red banners in trees. The early Greeks draped special trees with garlands of flowers. They also placed little masks called “oscilla” on branches so they could twirl freely in the wind.

The ancient Mayans attached teeth and locks of hair to boughs, and Laplanders collected samples of all the food eaten at the solstice feast. They put them into a boat made of bark and put the boat into a tree. They also slaughtered reindeer and put offerings of the animal’s internal organs into the trees. The Druids tied apples to the branches of fir trees to thank their god Odin for blessing them with fruitfulness.

At some point the wreath was born, its round shape further symbolizing the on-going cycles in the natural world. Then bonfires, torches and candles added even more to the anticipation of the coming warmer months. In Sweden during the festival of St. Lucia on December 13, a family’s eldest daughter wears a headpiece decorated with greenery and nine lighted candles. (Let’s hope her walk is steady!)

The Yule log, another symbol for light, is a good-luck charm held over from the 12-day Norse winter festival of Jol. The Germans celebrated Yule with two months of non-stop feasting.

Mistletoe is another kind of Christmas greenery, and different legends tell how kissing under a spring of mistletoe came about. Some say it’s an old Scandinavian custom. When enemies met under mistletoe in the forest, they would lay down their weapons and maintain a truce until the next day. Others say it came from the Druid’s medicinal lore that mistletoe produced fertility.

But alas, the mistletoe that’s growing all too plentifully in our Southwest mountains these days because of drought and weakened trees isn’t the kind you can kiss under. It’s the wrong species; too bad, because the day I went searching for evergreen boughs, I could have collected a lot of it. Instead, I gathered sprigs of juniper and cedar.

And the other night some friends dropped by unexpectedly. I’d just made a pot of soup and had bread fresh out of the oven. But what turned the evening into one of those memorable moments was all the Christmas decorations. With candles, Christmas lights, glittery elves and Santas all arranged among boughs of evergreens there couldn’t have been a more perfect setting for a midwinter celebration.