Holly
An evergreen with prickly leaves and red berries, used to deck English houses and churches at Christmas since at least the 15th century. The carol The Holly and the Ivy pairs its white flower, red berry, prickle and bitter bark each with a verse about Mary and Jesus.
Meaning
In the carol Cecil Sharp took down from Mary Clayton at Chipping Campden, “The holly bears a berry, As red as any blood, And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ For to do us sinners good”, and the prickle is “As sharp as any thorn”. Clement Miles (1912) notes that the thorns and blood-red berries tied holly to the Passion, which gave it its Danish name, Kristdorn. Older English carols set holly against ivy: holly was the men’s plant and ivy the women’s, and the carols argue which should have the mastery. Its meanings in the old flower books are on the December birth flowers page.
Origin and history
John Stow’s Survey of London, quoted by John Brand, says that at Christmas every man’s house and the parish churches were decked “with holme, ivy, bayes, and whatsoever the season of the year afforded to be green”. In 1444, Stow adds, a standard set up in Cornhill for the people’s Christmas sport and “nailed full of holme and ivie” was torn up in a thunderstorm on the morning of Candlemas, by “the malignant spirit”. Parish accounts show churches paying for it: St Mary-at-Hill in London for “Holme and ivy at Christmas Eve”, and St Laurence’s in Reading in 1505 for “the holy bush agayn Christmas”. A carol from the reign of Henry VI, in the Harleian manuscripts, takes holly’s side: “Let Holy hafe the maystery”, while “Ivy stond without the dore”. Brand concluded that holly decked the inside of houses, while ivy hung outside as a vintner’s sign and went among the greenery at funerals.
The carol sung today was collected by Sharp and published in his English Folk-Carols in 1911; he notes that the words were also printed on a broadside by Wadsworth of Birmingham. In Northumberland, Miles records, a person who wanted prophetic dreams tied nine smooth holly leaves with nine knots into a handkerchief and put it under the pillow.
Pagan greenery or Christian sign?
Writers have read Christmas greenery both ways. Polydore Vergil wrote that trimming churches with boughs and garlands “was taken of the heathen people”. Miles cites Bishop Martin of Braga, who in the sixth century still forbade decking houses with laurels and green trees at the Kalends. A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine in 1765 guessed instead that the greenery alluded to the prophets’ images of Christ as “the branch of righteousness”. Miles thought holly’s place against witches might come from its link with the Passion rather than from any pre-Christian sanctity.
Read next
- Next in Christmas symbolsMistletoeAn evergreen that grows on other trees and bears white berries in winter, hung up at Christmas for kissing under. Pliny wrote that the Druids held nothing more sacred, and in Norse myth a twig of mistletoe killed the god Balder.
- Holly is one of the December birth flowersDecember birth flowers: narcissus and hollyDecember’s birth flowers are the narcissus, usually the paperwhite, and the holly; some lists give the poinsettia. The Victorian flower dictionaries gave the narcissus egotism or self-love, and the holly foresight.
See also
Christmas tree, Nativity scene, Star of Bethlehem, Advent wreath, Poinsettia, Yule log.
Sources
- Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. 1 (John Brand, ed. Henry Ellis, 1853), John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain, arranged and revised by Sir Henry Ellis, vol. 1 (London: Bohn, 1853), Internet Archive (University of Toronto copy), Evergreen-decking at Christmas, pp. 520–523
- Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan (Clement A. Miles, 1912), Clement A. Miles, Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1912); Project Gutenberg e-text 19098, Internet Archive (Project Gutenberg text), chapter XI, Christmas decorations
- English Folk-Carols (Cecil J. Sharp, 1911), Cecil J. Sharp, English Folk-Carols, with pianoforte accompaniment and an introduction and notes (London: Novello; Taunton: Barnicott and Pearce, 1911), Internet Archive, No. 7, The Holly and the Ivy, and note
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from circles or curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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