MISTLETOE

Giz a kiss

It will not be long now before the real festivities begin. Not that they have just begun though. A friend of mine went to a Christmas bash with Santa coming down the chimney and all of the trimmings way back at the beginning of November. You have to feel a bit sorry for the employees of these establishments. One Christmas bash is not too bad, but when you have to attend about forty of them I would imagine they would get a bit tiring. It’s a bit like the film Groundhog Day. One tradition that is usually kept until the last minute though is kissing under the mistletoe. Mistletoe used to be a symbol of fertility and good luck, which would ward off evil spirits. It is easy to see why the plant appears to have magical powers, as it grows off a branch in a host tree, seemingly in mid air. In Ireland the mistletoe is usually grown on apple or poplar trees, but other countries can see oak pine and larch being the hosts. The seeds are wrapped in sticky mucus to hold them onto the branches and are often put onto the tree by birds having to wipe their beak to get the seeds off. The mistletoe that we see here for sale mainly comes from France where they grow on poplar trees. If you fancy having a go at growing some after the snogging has finished then push a seed or two into the cracks in a large branch of an apple or poplar tree and see what happens