People watch for the first signs of Christmas with great anticipation. Favorite holiday carols fill the air. Colorful, glistening lights illuminate the night sky. And wreaths of holly and ivy appear on doors and storefronts. To many people, traditional symbols like these signal the advent of the Christmas season. But how did these traditions begin?
For example, why have holly and ivy become symbols of Christmas? The answer takes us back to the earliest days of Christianity, when wreaths of holly—with their sharp leaves and red berries—brought to mind the crown of thorns worn by Jesus Christ and the drops of blood He shed. The tradition of making and giving decorative wreaths dates to the Roman Empire and may have entered Christianity through St. Augustine, who was Roman by birth and was highly successful at spreading “good tidings of great joy.”1 Over time, it was believed that a holly wreath on the door would keep one’s home safe from evil—and from tax collectors.2
Holly and ivy commonly appear together as mainstays of Christmas decor. Some say the holly represents the Christ child and the ivy represents His mother, Mary. Others find symbolic meaning in the fact that these plants do not die in winter. In the evergreen leaves of the holly and the ivy, they are reminded of the promise of everlasting life embodied in a newborn babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. No wonder our hearts still thrill with excitement as we see these symbols of Christmas!
The symbolism of the holly and the ivy has been preserved by an English folk song, written about 300 years ago.3 Traditions may come and go, but for all, the holly and the ivy signal that Christmas is coming, and with it, goodwill and enduring hope.
The holly and the ivy
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown.
1 Luke 2:10.
2 See Ronald M. Clancy, Best-Loved Christmas Carols: The Stories behind Twenty-Five Yuletide Favorites (2006), 61–62.
3 Clancy, Best-Loved Christmas Carols, 61.
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December 1, 2019
Broadcast Number 4,707
The Tabernacle Choir
Orchestra at Temple Square
Conductor
Mack Wilberg
Organist
Richard Elliott
Host
Lloyd Newell
Joy to the World!
Lowell Mason; arr. Leroy Robertson
For unto Us a Child Is a Born, from Messiah
George Frideric Handel
Variations on an Old Carol Tune
Geoffrey Shaw
Ding Dong! Merrily on High
French carol; arr. Mack Wilberg
In the Bleak Midwinter
Gustav Holst
The Holly and the Ivy
English Carol
Christmas Is Coming
English carol; arr. Mack Wilberg