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Under the Mistletoe at Christmas

At Christmas many homes and workplaces have mistletoe hanging up and the custom is that you can kiss somebody who stands under it.

So how did this custom originate?

Like a lot of customs and traditions, it is hard to say exactly how they began but it is thought that kissing under the mistletoe comes from the plant’s earlier association with fertility.

Many authorities credit the Druids with linking mistletoe with fertility. Perhaps it was because the plant, being an evergreen, grew on leafless trees giving them an appearance of life during the dead days of winter. Or perhaps it was the milky fluid in the berries. Although mistletoe grows on other trees, it doesn’t kill them because it makes its own chloraphyll, perhaps that was another reason to believe it could confer fertility on people.

Whatever its origins, it can be a charming custom, as long as the right people want to kiss you under it.