Red/green: The prominent colors of Christmas

Jimmy Appelt

jimmy.appelt@lavacacountytoday.com

Last week Hallettsville celebrated its traditional Festival of Lights event, which ushered in the Christmas season.

Following the event, each evening the Lavaca County Courthouse can now be seen with thousands of lights draped around it bringing a festive glow to the night sky.

Although the majority of the lights on the Courthouse are white, the colors most often seen during the Christmas season in homes and other decorations is red and green. 

One may wonder why red and green became the prominent colors of Christmas. 

There are many tales as to why these two colors primarily represent Christmas time, which can be tied to both Christianity and commercialism. 

Traditionally, Christians believe red represents the blood of Jesus when he was crucified, while green symbolizes the eternal life of Jesus in regards to evergreen trees, and holly bushes never losing their color.

The color green and its association with Christmas is believed to have originated before the birth of Christ when people would view the evergreen trees and holly bushes to  having some type of magical powers. 

However, after Jesus Christ lived on earth and Christmas became the time for celebrating His birth, people began to use the holly bushes, which contained red berries and green leaves to make wreaths and hang on their front doors. 

In addition, as the tradition of St. Nicholas, who is believed to be the original Santa Claus and wore a red robe, as time went by people began to associate red as the color for Santa’s clothing.

When looking at another reason Santa’s clothing is red is believed to have come from a Coca-Cola advertisement in 1931.

At that time, Coca-Cola employed, Haddon Sundblom, an illustrative artist to depict Santa Claus in one of its advertisements.

Not wanting to use someone dressed as Santa to pose for his art work, Sundblom wanted to create an image of jolly, bearded man wearing red and white.

Perhaps part of his inspiration came from the poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” written by Clement Clark Moore in 1823 and the lines that said in some of the lines including:

“He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. His eyes – how they twinkled, his dimples, how merry; His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry; His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow; And the beard on his chin was white as the snow. He had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.” 

The results of Sundblom’s work became the turning point in history on how Santa is viewed today.  

Still another use of the red color in Christmas deals with the candy cane, a cane-shaped candy that contains red and white stripes flavored with peppermint.

The candy cane became associated with Christmas following the 1837 exhibit of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association where candy was judged in competition.

It is believed that the candy cane was originally a straight white candy, which was used as ornaments of the Christmas tree.

According to this legend, in the 17th century the white candy sticks were shaped into a shepherd’s crook and given to children to keep them quiet while attending a live nativity scene. 

As the candy cane came to the United States, the red stripes were added and were not only used for decoration, but also for eating during the Christmas season. 

It is believed the J-shape represents Jesus Christ and if you turn the candy cane upside down it could represent a shepherd’s staff. Also, the red stripes represent the blood of Jesus while the white color denotes the purity of Christ.

The Christmas season with the red and green colors certainly does bring out a beautiful scene during this time of the year and also helps us anticipate the true meaning of Christmas — The Birth of the Christ child.