Holiday Color Series: Dreaming of a White Christmas

Holiday Color Series: Dreaming of a White Christmas

holiday color series white christmas white holiday flowers white lilies white tulips

Traditionally, the Christmas season is dominated by colors of red and green, contrasted against bright white, lustrous metallics, and cool blue. Each color has its own symbolic meaning and historical significance, and over the next few weeks, I'm going to focus on one particular holiday color. This week, we're taking a hint from the world's best-selling single of all time, "White Christmas," with a nod to white flowers for holiday decor.

History of White Christmas

Dickens may have popularized the idea that Christmas should be white with his 1843 tale of redemption, "A Christmas Carol," but it was one century later, when the song "White Christmas" was released to the world, winning an Academy Award, and further enshrining in our minds that white equals Christmas.  White does invoke an atmosphere of wintertime, childhood, and tradition, while also symbolizing the tranquility and peace that can come with the holiday season (if we want it!). The cool tones of white also strike the perfect balance with traditional colors of Christmas: red, green, and gold.

 

White Lilies

White lilies have always been a popular holiday choice due to their shape, scent, and symbolism.  From as early as 1600 B.C. particular meanings have been associated with the white lily, with ancient Greeks and Romans believing the lily represented purity, fertility, virtue, and prosperity.  In Christian culture, the white lily is a symbol of the innocence and chastity associated with the Virgin Mary. 

The shape, lasting ability, and scent of White Oriental Lilies in particular is especially lovely when paired with bright ilex berries and earthy, evergreen boughs of cedar, fir, and pine.  

 

White Tulips

Tulips in December? Yes, yes we can.  Together with our Southern Hemisphere partners we can offer spring-fresh tulips in the dead of winter, which can give holiday bouquets and arrangements a modern, garden-fresh look.  Tulips, including the super-tall French variety (Clearwater is pictured below), as well as the unique shape of Parrot Tulips (pictured above, second photo of blog), are gaining popularity as a fresh alternative to traditional holiday flowers, and they look great when used en masse.   

 

Like lilies, when white tulips are paired with holiday greenery and bursts of color, the effect really drives that White Christmas feeling home.  

White flowers are not only beautiful in their purity, they pair well with classic colors of Christmas. White is clean and pure, and brings to mind the idea of a fresh start, which we all look forward to at the turn of every new year.  So, may your days be merry and bright and may all your Christmas flowers be white.

Flowers for Easter Renewal

Flowers for Easter Renewal

Easter flowers Easter lilies Holy Week Hyacinth Palm Sunday Persian New Year rebirth renewal spring Tulips white lilies

"Easter spells out beauty,
 the rare beauty of new life."
S.D. Gordon


I write this in the middle of Holy Week, a week which begins on Palm Sunday and concludes 7 days later with Easter Sunday. In the Christian tradition, Easter represents the resurrection of Jesus, a day filled with hope, celebration, and renewal--how appropriate that this day is accompanied by the arrival of Spring.

 After all, Spring is THE season which represents dawn after darkness, sunshine after rain, life after death.  Spring and Easter are inextricably linked, both embodying resurrection of growth and being. 

Lily sprouts ready to go after a long winter in the ground.

 Even if you do not celebrate Easter as a religious holiday, there is an undeniable sense of wonderment and collective reverence for the day.  Yes, the world is coming alive again after a long and dark winter.  Just take a look at the secular images of Easter: fertile rabbits, baby chicks, eggs, and flowers, flowers, flowers. They are all related to life and rebirth.

 What flower reminds you of the hope and renewal of Easter?  

 A lot of responses here on the farm included the tulip, which comes as no surprise as this flower is firmly associated with Spring.  The other popular response was the hyacinth, another classic spring bloom, which comes in all the Easter colors.  Not only that, blue hyacinth is the flower of the Persian New Year, which also marks the first day of spring. 

 

Spring-hued blue and lavender hyacinth

However, the most favored response was the white lily.  White lilies are ubiquitous during Easter; in fact, the white lilum longiflorum is officially known as the "Easter Lily."  For centuries, this white lily has been used as the floral symbol of the resurrection.  Moreover, legend has it that white lilies sprung up where drops of Jesus' sweat fell as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before the crucifixion.  Talk about hope, renewal, and rebirth!

However you choose to celebrate Easter, we here at Sun Valley wish you a lovely one--may it be filled with the promise of new life, new flowers, and hope for the future.

"I think of the garden after the rain;

And hope to my heart comes singing,

'At morn the [lily]-blooms will be white,

And the Easter bells be ringing!"

-Edna Dean Proctor