Long before Christmas, ancient Celtic people revered evergreen plants, like holly, ivy and mistletoe for their ability to stay green in the darkest of winter months. They used these pleasing plants to brighten up homes, churches and workplaces during the long lifeless season. They celebrated the winter solstice by decorating their homes with holly to bring protection and good luck to their families in the coming year. These plants gave hope and the promise of spring and that winter wouldn’t last forever (unless you lived in Canada.)
The Romans exchanged evergreen branches during January as a sign of good luck. The ancient Egyptians used to bring the green palm branches into their houses during the mid-winter festivals for good luck.
In many parts of Europe during the middle ages, Paradise plays were performed, often on Christmas Eve. They told Bible stories to people who couldn’t read. In the play, the ‘Paradise Tree’ , the tree in the garden of Eden was normally a pine tree with red apples tied to it. This is thought to be the root for the Christmas tree tradition.
The custom of pairing red and green dates continued into the 14th century when the colours were used to paint medieval rood screens, which were partitions installed in churches to separate the congregation from the priest and the altar. These screens and the boundary they created, influenced Victorians to associate the colours with a different boundary, marking the end of the old year and the beginning of a new one at Christmas.
Despite these meaningful religious traditions, there’s a person in the modern times that we can thank for establishing the Christmas colours.
The artist Haddon Sundblom. Never heard of him? He’s the guy that Coca-Cola hired to draw a Santa Claus for the company’s ads. He is generally considered as the inventor of the modern Santa.
Until that point, artistic renditions of Santa were never consistent. He was usually a much thinner looking dude, and was more creepy than jolly. His robes varied between blue, green, and a very sanguinary red.
Sundblom chose to make him chubby and jolly the heck out of him. He also painted him wearing red robes (the colour of the Coke logo). He would then paint him surrounded with a lesser amount of green in various places.
The ads grew in popularity, and people came to know Sundblom’s Santa as the real enchilada. (which are full of red and green chillies and I think should be served at Christmas.) The red of Santa’s robes parcelled with the evergreens plants we use decorate, solidified the collective symbolism of Christmas.
The history of how red and green came to symbolize Christmas is a lot like the holiday itself: deeply rooted in religious tradition, modernized by commercialism, and continued by spirits of joy and good cheer.
Merry Christmas!
Hope you get some vermillion and viridian under your tree. :)
Your friend in art
Doug.