I am grateful for many things and many people. Today I wanted to write about the people who work at care centers and are trying to lift the spirits of the residents who are most definitely feeling more isolated than ever during this pandemic. I'm thankful for them!

I know of one sweet lady who is doing all she can to lift and cheer the hearts of the elderly. She has been enlisting the help of our community to donate decorations and notes of encouragement and other things. In December she is planning snowflake day, candy cane day, a wreath for every resident's door, and many other ideas. I am grateful that my daughter and my niece and I have been able to make a wreath to donate. I hope it brings a smile and some joy to whoever receives it. 

One of my favorite things to do on Sunday morning is watch the broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. I love the songs, and I also love the messages. Today's message was about wreaths. I learned something new about holly and ivy and wreaths, and I wanted to share it with you too.

The Holly and the Ivy

"People watch for the first signs of Christmas with great anticipation. Favorite holiday carols fill the air. Colorful, glistening lights illuminate the night sky. And wreaths of holly and ivy appear on doors and storefronts. To many people, traditional symbols like these signal the advent of the Christmas season. But how did these traditions begin?

For example, why have holly and ivy become symbols of Christmas? The answer takes us back to the earliest days of Christianity, when wreaths of holly—with their sharp leaves and red berries—brought to mind the crown of thorns worn by Jesus Christ and the drops of blood He shed. The tradition of making and giving decorative wreaths dates to the Roman Empire and may have entered Christianity through St. Augustine, who was Roman by birth and was highly successful at spreading “good tidings of great joy.”1 Over time, it was believed that a holly wreath on the door would keep one’s home safe from evil—and from tax collectors.2

Holly and ivy commonly appear together as mainstays of Christmas decor. Some say the holly represents the Christ child and the ivy represents His mother, Mary. Others find symbolic meaning in the fact that these plants do not die in winter. In the evergreen leaves of the holly and the ivy, they are reminded of the promise of everlasting life embodied in a newborn babe, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. No wonder our hearts still thrill with excitement as we see these symbols of Christmas!

The symbolism of the holly and the ivy has been preserved by an English folk song, written about 300 years ago.3 Traditions may come and go, but for all, the holly and the ivy signal that Christmas is coming, and with it, goodwill and enduring hope." 

The holly and the ivy

When they are both full grown

Of all the trees that are in the wood

The holly bears the crown.

1. Luke 2:10.

2. See Ronald M. Clancy, Best-Loved Christmas Carols: The Stories behind Twenty-Five Yuletide Favorites (2006), 61–62.

3. Clancy, Best-Loved Christmas Carols, 61.