Today is December 1st. It marks the first snowfall of the season. We had just returned home from Dim Sum at Sea King Shark Fin Seafood Restaurant on Merivale Road in the city when the ghostly flakes began to materialize in the misty grey atmosphere. Of a sudden we turned the hibernal corner! Equally precipitous was the thought of glossy green holly bush leaves with their spikes and brownish stems supporting a cluster of red berries. It is for me the picture of Christmas. The memory hearkens back to my earliest childhood at Sunday school when I heard for a first time the lyrics of The Holly and the Ivy the traditionally British folk Christmas carol.

Christians have identified a wealth of symbolism in its form. The sharpness of the leaves help to recall the crown of thorns worn by Jesus; the red berries serve as a reminder of the drops of blood that were shed for salvation; and the shape of the leaves, which resemble flames, can serve to reveal God’s burning love for His people. Combined with the fact that holly maintains its bright colors during the Christmas season, it naturally came to be associated with the Christian holiday.

Shamefully perhaps it is not the Christian symbolism which speaks to me; rather it is merely the bright contrasting colours of emerald green and ruby red against the background of mournful and burnished weather beaten brown stems. The brightness against white snow and brindle is the paradox of survival in winter.

Like holly, ivy has been revered for keeping its leaves over winter and was likewise associated with eternal life. It was thought to help with the recovery of sick animals and in Shropshire, a piece of ivy was fed to animals before midday on Christmas day to keep the evil spirits away for the coming year.

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.

Approaching the Winter Solstice (anywhere from December 21 – 23 in the Northern Hemisphere) is reminder of impending darkness and change. Being subdued is as natural and unavoidable as the tilt of the earth in the sky; and its stir of contemplation and hibernation is similarly irresistible. Except for those whose undying ambition is projecting themselves across a snowbound landscape by skidding upon polished hardwood panels while perilously maintaining balance with pointed poles, the rest of us willing retire to the comfort of the withdrawing room to look thoughtfully into the meaning generated by Nature and the astronomic influence of the globe flying noiselessly about the Universe. Given the breadth of the musing I make no apology for the deference.  And of course there is need of restorative additions to both the psyche and the corpus in the process of fulfilling this native indolence. Remarkably I have contracted that particular abuse by confining my indulgences to reminiscence of the Side Car (about which coincidentally only yesterday we spoke at some length with our hosts over luncheon) and consumption of a sample of the three cookies homemade by the same hosts.  With an espresso Quatro to sustain my dissolving energy from such heated preoccupation!