DECK THE HALLS
How did our rural ancestors brighten up their homes for the midwinter festival? Ruth Binney looks back at the history and symbolism of Christmas decorations
Discover the history of traditional Christmas decorations, many of which have their origins in pre-Christian rituals and beliefs, writes Ruth Binney. Plus, how to make your own kissing bough.
Christmas traditions can seem timeless. Yet some are surprisingly modern in origin, while others are distinctly ancient. So what did Christmas look like in bygone times? Long before Christ’s birth, midwinter was a time of celebration. Families and friends would gather to commemorate the continuity of life and the hope of future fertility, and to defy evil spirits. These ancient rituals were practised from Europe to the Middle East. The Persians, for example, celebrated the ‘birthday of the unconquered Sun’; the ancient Romans, Saturnalia, and the northern Europeans, Yule. The latter involved gathering evergreens – ‘everlasting’ plants – and lighting fires and a Yule log. Christian communities soon incorporated aspects of all these traditions into their Christmas celebrations.
EVERGREENS WITH MEANING
By medieval times, holly and ivy were widely used to decorate homes at Christmas. They were often bundled together with fragrant evergreens, including rosemary (for remembrance), bay (for strength and courage) and lavender (for devotion), into a ‘kissing ball’ or bunch. Apples and other fruit might be added, and embedded inside was a clay figurine of the infant Jesus. Anyone walking beneath the ball, whether kissed or not, was assured of blessings and good luck.
The holly’s red berries, representing Christ’s blood, and its prickles recalling the crown of thorns, made it acceptable to Christians. But ivy, although linked through its three-lobed leaves with fidelity and affection – as well as the Trinity – was nevertheless viewed with suspicion by some, a problem overcome by painting its berries red. Mistletoe was much more problematic, being a fertility symbol and associated with Druidical rituals for protection from witches, disease, fire and all other ills. Its boughs were banned from churches, but became popular in the home, where it was woven with holly to make a Holy Bough, included in the kissing ball and then, from the Victorian era, as a decoration in its own right.
BRINGING LIGHT TO THE DARKNESS
Scaled down from the winter solstice Yule log – traditionally lain on the fire to last the 12 days of Christmas – the candle quickly became a symbol of Christ, the eternal light of the world. By the Middle Ages, the rich could afford
Christmas candles made from honey-scented beeswax, although the poor continued with acrid tallow. But irrespective of status, the candle was a universal sign of ‘peace on Earth and goodwill to all men’.
There is strong evidence that when Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas celebrations in 1644 candles were still lit by many. With the restoration of Charles II in 1660, Christmas became legal once more, although festivities were far from lavish. By 1820, the end of the Georgian period, it was both a popular and decorative celebration, and with the arrival of the first Christmas trees, candles held pride of place on these iconic evergreens.
ADORNING THE TREE
In 1800, following her native Germany’s tradition, Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, brought to England the custom of decorating a large indoor yew bough with small candles and fluttering paper strips. Our modern Christmas dates to 1840, when Prince Albert first publicised his family’s custom of bringing a tree into their home.
Whether yew, pine or fir, Victorian Christmas trees were often hung upside down from the ceiling. Alongside candles, ornaments ranged from birds and butterflies on springs to miniature tin toys, sugared fruit and prettily wrapped gifts. The kissing ball, now more lavishly decorated, was also reintroduced.
Shaped like nuts and fruit, the first glass baubles also had German origins, being handmade by Hans Greiner in the late 1840s. Spherical versions – ‘fake’ apples – were quickly popularised by the American magnate FW Woolworth, who imported them in bulk. Legend has it that tinsel was first spun by a spider for a poor family, but in reality it dates to Germany around 1610. Popular from Victorian times and made from silver, it tarnished irredeemably in candle smoke and by the early 1900s was replaced by aluminium, a metal outlawed with the outbreak of war. Today’s versions are made from PVC with metallic lamination.
The Victorian Christmas tree was ablaze with candles, often literally. Safer strings of electric lights came to Britain from America, where in 1882, Edward H Johnson, associate of Thomas Edison, lit his tree with 80 customised red, white and blue bulbs. Prince Albert topped his tree with an angel, but by the 1870s, at the height of Empire, the Union flag was popular. The star, of course, remains ever appropriate.
Finally, to ensure your family’s continued good fortune, the decorations should always be taken down by Twelfth Night, and the evergreens burned, if possible.