Evergreens

Throughout history decorations in the festive season have strongly centred on the use of evergreens. By the late Middle Ages almost all surviving church records include entries for the purchase of holly and ivy in the winter. For Christians evergreens symbolised eternal life and the promise of the return of life in the spring. We know that private homes would also have been dressed in greenery at this time of year. The 16th-century London historian John Stow found an account from 1444, which explained that in London:

every man’s house and also his parish church was decked with holme, ivie, bayes, and whatever the season of the year afforded to be green. 

The carol ‘Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly’ originated in Wales in the 16th century, showing the continued use of holly within Christmas decorations. Other carols of this period also mention ivy and holly as decoration.

In the Victorian period holly and fir garlands were strewn on the mantelpiece. Charles Darwin, writing from his home at Down House in 1877, believed that a scarcity of bees in the spring had resulted in fewer berries on holly that winter. He wrote:

we cannot decorate our Christmas hearths with the scarlet berries of the Holly, because bees were rare during the spring.

Kissing Boughs

Kissing boughs are a Christmas decoration consisting of two or four crossed hoops forming a spherical shape. They were traditionally decorated with whatever greenery was available. Boughs can measure up to a metre and a half across and are often hung on walls or over doorways as a gesture of goodwill – to welcome guests into the home. It is not certain when kissing boughs were first introduced in England although they are often considered to have been a popular Christmas decoration in the Tudor period. 

In the Georgian period kissing boughs were more elaborate, including greenery decorated with apples and oranges, and described as containing ‘bits of coloured ribbons and paper roses’ and other ‘various brightly coloured ornaments’.

Tradition says that gentlemen could pluck a berry from the bough and kiss a lady on the cheek. When there were no more berries, no more kisses could be given. This may be where the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe comes from.

Christmas Trees

Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort, is usually credited with having introduced the Christmas tree into England in 1840. However it was actually ‘good Queen Charlotte’, the German wife of George III, who set up the first known tree at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, in December 1800.

Christmas trees became very popular with the upper classes, especially for children’s gatherings. Any handy evergreen tree might be uprooted for the purpose and they were usually candle-lit, decorated with trinkets and surrounded by piles of presents.

In December 1840, Prince Albert imported several spruce firs from his native Coburg, in Germany, to serve as Christmas trees. But it was not until a few years later, when periodicals such as the Illustrated London News, Cassell’s Magazine and The Graphic began to depict and describe the royal Christmas trees every year, that the custom of setting up such trees in homes really caught on amongst the general public in England.