Christmas Colors
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Hansen
Snowmen for the holidays
December 9, 2011 • Elizabeth Hansen, Online Editor
Filed under Student Life
Whether it’s a huge, evergreen tree looming in the living room by the fire, or some canned cranberries waiting on the table, green and red make an appearance throughout the Christmas holidays. Ripping open presents and indulging in a Christmas feast may have stopped us from thinking about what these colors represent during this holiday season.
There are many different stories for why these colors are used and recognized for Christmas. Some are religious, as in green representing eternal life and red representing the blood that Christ shed when he was crucified. Holly is also a significant decoration, which sports green leaves with red berries. The notion of the Christmas tree seems to center around a tradition of plays where they would tie apples to pine tree branches to make apple trees, and the use of the trees around Christmas time became a tradition. In this story, the pine tree is symbolic of green and the apple is symbolic of red.
Coronado students had their own ideas about what brought about the color choice.
“The colors complement each other because red is bright and festive while green is fresh and has to do with the outdoors,” Sophomore Julia Worthy said. “Red and green are compliment(ary) colors, being positioned opposite on the color wheel.”
Sophomore Kirstin Collins had a similar idea. “I think green is for all the greenery used as decorations and red is for the festivities during the holidays,” Collins said.
Sophomore Jared Lewis believes that the color tradition comes from Christmas trees. “I think it’s because Christmas trees are green and they have red berries on them,” Lewis said. “So you would walk out and see the trees with berries all over them and those just became the colors.”
Sophomore Kyle Dunn has a more creative answer as to why he thinks red and green represent the holiday. “Red is like Santa’s nose when its cold outside and green is because everyone wanted to see some green because all the grass dies in the winter,” Dunn stated.
So whether you think the colors became tradition from more religious reasons or just from the foliage that survives the winter, next time you’re hanging up decorations on the trees think about what makes the holiday what it is. Family, friends, gifts, and even the more subtle colors all add into the warming effect of the Christmas holidays. Next time you’re out looking at gifts for a loved one, look around and take in what makes this holiday such a special one.
Email This Post
Print This Post
Loading ...
Comments
Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!