Although Christmas comes with the beginning of winter, Christmas flowers have always played an important part of the holiday season. While poinsettias are a traditional Christmas flower, there aren’t the only one. There are numerous other flowers that can add light and joy to the seasonal decoration of a home.
For variety, it’s best to incorporate poinsettias with other Christmas flowers. Traditionally, a Christmas flower comes in white or red hues, as these are the joyous colors of the season. Variety can also be found in the arrangements of the flowers. You can choose from a selection of designs. Each has its purpose in decorative function, depending on what you want to brighten your home.
A candled arrangement of Christmas flowers brings charm to the Christmas table. For the traditional advent wreath, 4 or 5 candles are arranged in a circle to represent the never ending love of Christ, with the flowers and wreath pay homage to beauty of nature and life in the persistence of winter. Every week, a new candle is lit, with the Christ candle in the middle being lit upon Christmas. Though the tradition sprung out from protestant homes in Germany, it spread to America in the 1930s to become a time honored holiday tradition.
Flower arrangements can also be arranged in a beautiful silver pitcher, subtly suggesting that the Christmas flowers are beautiful enough to serve. This can be a beautiful decoration for the dining room or the hallway with a splash of Christmas color.
Poinsettias have long been a Christmas flower tradition, stemming back to Mexico in the 1600s. Legend has it that a little girl too poor to afford presents gathered together some leaves and left them at the base of a church altar. Blossoms sprouted from the leaves to become beautiful poinsettias. Cathloic priests grew them in church holiday gardens in Mexico in the 1700s. Poinsettias began being implemented into church holiday gardens by Catholic priest sin Mexico in the 1700s. The tradition spread to America when the Eche family of California was able to graft two varieties of poinsettias together to form the more compact plant that we typically associate with Christmas. This German American family held a virtual monopoly on poinsettias until the 1990s, as the grafting technique was a closely guarded secret for quite some time.
About the author
Frank Geddfey writes flower blogs about the beauty of Christmas flowers for the holiday season. He became interested when he learned about the history of poinsettias as a traditional Christmas flower and its development into a time honored religious and holiday symbol.
