As the season bears down on us, a nature hike to gather decorations might be the best prescription for the holiday anxiety that you may be experiencing even if it's just through your own garden.
These days, plastic seems to be the king of Christmas decorations with plastic trees, garland, ornaments, even fake food!
But there are many traditions that involve native plants.
As far back as history records you will find references of nature alongside the stories of the season, be they about Christmas, the winter solstice, Chanukah, Festivus and others. The symbolism continues to this day.
The Christmas Tree.
The Christmas tree symbolizes hope and was a tradition that first began in 16th Century Germany. It wasn't widespread in the United States until the early 20th Century.
As a child our family would always go out and cut an Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) tree to use as our centerpiece for Christmas. My dad had a friend that owned hundreds of acres of country property that was literally covered with cedars. It was a yearly rite to traipse through these woods in search of the perfect tree, and we always found one.
My dad would use his hand saw to cut it down, then we would take turns dragging it back to the car. It seemed that the tree always looked smaller in the field where it grew, as we always had to do some extra cutting to get it to fit in our living room.
Mistletoe.
Mistletoe symbolizes romance. It is actually a parasite that gets nourishment by attaching itself to deciduous trees by way of “deposits” made by the birds that eats the mistletoe berries.
Holly
As the song goes, people deck their halls with boughs of holly because holly was thought of as good luck since it never died. The practice began in ancient Roman and Greek days. The evergreen branches with red berries are a beautiful sight, and the deciduous hollies of different colors can be used in as many ways as you can come up with.
While on your winter hike in the woods, if you have permission of the property owner, carry some pruners to collect interesting branches, cones, seed pods and anything else that might catch your eye. If you do decide to make cuts, please do so in a manner that will benefit the plant. There are right ways and wrong ways to prune a tree or shrub.
These goodies can be used as indoor or outdoor decorations by placing them in vases or sinking them in your outdoor planters and window boxes to brighten things up for the holiday season.
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