Holly berries. The holly tree stays green throughout the winter and fruits around now. While not great eating it provided calories in the darkest part of the year.
Our association between Christmas and those colors comes in part from:
- old traditions
- CocaCola marketing
Basically, those colors have always been associated with this time of year and festivities of similar nature ever since ancient civilizations. And in modern times, thanks to the fizzy drink marketing campaign and the influence of the US on the rest of the world, the red and green image of Santa Claus and other decorations they became the default colors for Christmas worldwide.
Here’s an article about it. The Wikipedia page also has more info and sources on symbols of the holiday :)
Red for Santa, green for coniferous trees, white for snow
Red for coca cola. To clarify.
Christmas has always been a celebration of mid winter ( more specifically the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere,) as far back as records go there has always been some variety of taking a evergreen tree as a symbol of the return of the sun. Red might be part of the evergreens berries (holly), but mostly it’s because coca cola advertised with a picture of St Nicklaus dressed in their corporate colours, instead of the traditional green.
The Coca-Cola thing is just a widespread myth. Red was already used for Santa and Christmas in general before Coca-Cola’s ads.
Snot and blood
Green for conifers.
Red for the mushrooms that pop up at their base
https://www.ffungi.org/blog/the-influence-of-hallucinogenic-mushrooms-on-christmas
I always thought it was for mistletoe which has green leaves and red berries. But maybe that’s something that came after red and green were established as Christmas’ colors?
Red because you are tired and sweaty from all that xmas shopping. Green because all the oligarchs have all your money now.
Red: the blood of angry men.
Green: the blood reptilian healthcare CEO’s.
