The History of Mistletoe

Mistletoe:

Mistletoe is a hemiparasitic evergreen. "Hemiparastic" means that mistletoe relies on the host tree for moisture and minerals but it is able to photosynthesise its own sugars. It usually grows on deciduous trees, never on evergreens. The Eurasian Viscum album is most abundant on apple trees, poplars, willows and sometimes, in the Amersham area, hawthorns. It is rarely found on oaks.

The history of mistletoe:

The fact that mistletoe stays green on otherwise apparently dormant trees in wintertime is thought to have caught the eyes of the Celts and the Druids, who venerated the mistletoe, especially that found on oaks. The Druids were thought to have cut the mistletoe ceremonially from their sacred oaks with a golden knife. It was widely held to cure sterility and counteract poisons.

Kissing under the mistletoe :

In eighteenth-century England at Christmas time a young lady standing under some mistletoe, brightly trimmed with evergreens, ribbons, and ornaments, could not refuse to be kissed. Such a kiss could mean deep romance or lasting friendship and goodwill. But if the girl remained unkissed, she could not expect to marry during the following year. In some parts of England the Christmas mistletoe is burned on twelfth night; if the mistletoe was not burned, legend has it that all the boys and girls that had kissed under it would never marry.

Whether we believe the stories or not, mistletoe always makes for fun and frolic at Christmas celebrations. Even if the pagan significance of mistletoe has been long forgotten, the custom of exchanging a kiss under the mistletoe can still be found in many European countries as well as in North America.

Whilst we here at Christmas Tree Farm, Chesham sell fresh mistletoe, we cannot offer guarantees that hanging mistletoe in your house at Christmas-time will work!