Boughs of Evergreen: The Holidays Approach

Here in the Southwest we're blessed with lots of blue skies throughout the year, but many places aren't. And trimming a house with evergreens during the holidays is all about appeasing the sun so that it will return.

  • Topic: Winter Care
  • Author: Cindy Bellinger
  • Keywords: christmas, holidays, evergreen boughs, decorating
  • Date: November 2006

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It’s almost time to start decorating with boughs of evergreen. Which brings us to what the holidays really means. Here in the Southwest we’re blessed with lots of blue skies throughout the year, but many places aren’t. And trimming a house with evergreens during the holidays is all about appeasing the sun so that it will return.

A few years ago I connected with a long-lost 4th cousin in Sweden. Her life sure goes inward during the winter. No light. No wonder people living in those cold, northern climes of Scandinavia and Germany revere plants that stay green year round. Word is the early people believed evergreens stored the power of the sun.

Sheryl Ann Karas, author of “The Solstice Evergreen,” says midwinter marked the year’s turning point for our ancestors’, people whose only world was the natural environment. Survival then was based on noticing the interdependence of everything around them.

Karas, a Jewish woman who became fascinated with the Christmas tree, researched cultures all over the world and found most festivities included boughs of evergreens. From sprigs to branches to entire trees, evergreens represent the never-ending cycle of the natural world everywhere.

And at some point when the wreath was created, its round shape further symbolized the on-going cycles in the natural world. Mistletoe is another Christmas greenery, and kissing under a sprig in a doorway is 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. And the Druid’s medicinal lore says that mistletoe produces fertility.

This time of year is indeed a time to honor green. And in the following weeks I’ll be sharing different ways we can do that. And if you have a special way of using greenery during the holidays, let me know and I’ll pass it on.