Matthew 27:29 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

The prickly leaves of the holly represent the crown of thorns that Jesus wore when he was crucified. The berries are the drops of blood that were shed by Jesus because of the thorns.

In Scandinavia, it is known as the Christ Thorn.

In pagan times, Holly was thought to be a male plant and Ivy a female plant. An old tradition from the Midlands of England says that whichever one was brought into the house first over winter, tells you whether the man or woman of the house would rule that year! But it was unlucky to bring either into a house before Christmas Eve.

I see some Christmas traditions that really are not about the birth of Christ but rather His death. That might seem a little out of place but how many of us can say that we were born with that kind of purpose? Christ had to be born in order that all the scriptures could be fulfilled. He could not die for our sins without being born. More than that, and this is the part that bothers everyone outside the Body of Christ, He had to be God. There is no way that the blood of man has the power to enforce God’s covenant.

Matthew 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Psalms 32:5 I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Genesis 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Here I find myself at the end of my Christmas traditions realizing I have not addressed the Christmas tree tradition. This was not intentional but might have to do with dispelling emotional attachments of traditions with the revelation of origins. The single most prevalent image associated with Christmas just might well be the tree.

By the time the Christmas tree was introduced into the west, its origins and meaning had already undergone some substantial changes. As it was introduced into America, those origins and meanings gave way to the spectacle of Christmas and the elaborate decorating of the tree. The dressing of the tree itself became as much a part of the seasonal tradition as any other, with a dash of flare in individual inspiration. The tree became the center of the season.

It became widely known in the west from a family portrait of Queen Victoria. Her German Prince Albert husband brought the tradition from his homeland. The bulbs which are today molded plastic, blown glass or clothe wound Styrofoam, were originally apples.

The origin of apples was used in concert with a Christian play involving The Paradise Tree. The telling of the play began with the fall of man, eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The play ended with the foretelling of the birth of the Christ child. The use of the apple may have a strong influence to the common thought of the apple being Eve’s temptation fruit.