Holiday favorites include horticulture

Imagine this. It is Christmas day. Colored lights are strung around the windows and a wreath of wire-bound ornaments hangs on the front door. Inside, a crèche is on the mantel, cards featuring bells, snow, sleighs, angels, and Santa cover a wall.

The dining table sports a centerpiece of red candles in a bowl of green tinsel. Excited children have already robbed their stockings and are clamoring to start on the gifts heaped in the corner of the front room.

Dinner is in the oven, a fine goose with a smorgasbord of cheeses for after.

Can anything be missing?

I asked my daughters this question. They both wondered why there was no Christmas tree, while mashed potatoes and other foods were found missing from the menu. I could add that I prefer evergreen wreaths, cards featuring boughs or berries, and holly centerpieces.

Enter horticulture.

Many Christmas traditions predate the celebration of Christmas itself, and many of those traditions rely on horticultural products.

In the North, during the season of the winter solstice, Yule logs for the fires provided warmth and light, inviting the sun to return. Mistletoe hung over the entrances of homes, warding off evil spirits. Special drinks, derived from fruits and berries, were quaffed in great quantities, keeping the spirit merry. Green boughs and flowers adorned homes in ancient Rome; Saxons decorated with holly, ivy, and bay.

As Christianity spread, so did the idea of the celebration of Christ's birth. Early Christian scholars disagreed on the date of the nativity, placing it anywhere from May 20 to January 6. Eventually, December 26 was settled upon, as it was already a recognized time of celebration in most of the pagan world.

Pope Gregory I believed that the people "should celebrate a religious feast and worship God by their feasting, so that still keeping outward pleasures, they may more readily receive spiritual joys." Largely because of this liberal ruling, old customs of the winter solstice were blended with Christian religious practices, resulting in many of our modern Christmas traditions.

Hospitality and good will have long been an integral part of this celebration, with much gathering of the family and friends, and an abundance of food. The traditional roast goose, mostly now abandoned for turkey, is just not enough to make a feast. It wants to be accompanied by berry sauces, roast or steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes, yams, crusty breads and roles, fruit, nut, and mince pies, brandy-soaked cakes, and plum pudding.

Without horticulture, the goose would stand alone.

And don’t forget that icon of American Christmas keeping —the tree! (Remember how after-thoughtish those gifts looked heaped in the corner?) The observance of the Christmas tree, with the gifts piled under or around it, originated in Germany. The tree was not only decorated with candles and ribbons, but with strings of nuts and berries which were, once the tree was discarded, put outside for the birds to eat. The Christmas tree came to England with Queen Victoria's husband, who was of German decent, and to America with its immigrants. It is considered an essential part of the Christmas celebration in most of the western world.

But getting back to Christmas Day. Let's put a holly swag above the front door, hang some mistletoe in the entryway, and let those red candles flank a living poinsettia. We'll add cards featuring berries, trees, ivy, and evergreen boughs.

The gifts can peep out from under the brightly decorated tree, and we'll make the goose an exception to and otherwise entirely horticultural feast.

Now, nothing is missing.

Holiday Recipe Ideas

Roast Potatoes

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 tablespoon seasoned salt

4 pounds of potatoes

1/2 cup chicken broth

Melt butter in a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Pare potatoes, roll in melted butter to coat well. Sprinkle with the salt. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn potatoes and add chicken broth. Bake 30-45 minutes longer turning occasionally.

Christmas Punch

1 large orange

2 tablespoons soft dark

6 cloves

brown sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 pint orange juice

2 ounces blanched almonds

1/4 pint rum or brandy

2 ounces raisins

1 bottle red wine

Stick the orange with the cloves and place it in a saucepan. Add all the other ingredients. Leave to stand for about 30 minutes, or longer if possible, then slowly heat the punch, keeping the heat on the lowest setting. When the punch has had time to reach full flavor (about 30-45 minutes), serve very warm.

Hally Truelove is a Master Gardener and Plants Woman who lives and gardens in Wasilla Alaska with her two daughters, a handful of cats, a bunch of bunnies, some guinea pigs, a dog and a frog. Contact her at 376-0909.