The traditional Christmas colors of red, green, and white have become ubiquitous during the holiday season, showing up on everything from decorations to clothing. But how did this particular color scheme come to be so strongly associated with Christmas in the first place?
The connection of red, green, and white to Christmas has origins going back centuries before the holiday was widely celebrated. The colors gained additional meaning through their associations with plants and traditions of winter festivals. Over time, the palette was popularized and became cemented as the definitive Christmas colors thanks to poems, songs, and advertisements. Today, red, green, and white retain symbolic meaning and create a distinctive aesthetic that is instantly recognizable as belonging to the Christmas season.
Origins of the Colors
The tradition of using red, green, and white as the main Christmas colors arose from several different sources. While today we associate these hues with the holiday aesthetic, they held meaning in previous pagan winter celebrations.
| Color | Significance |
| Red | The blood of Christ, apples, holly berries |
| Green | Pine trees and wreaths, eternal life |
| White | Snow, purity, angels |
Red has long been associated with Christmas due to its connection to holly plants. The red holly berry was a popular Christmas decoration in Medieval times. Red also came to represent the blood of Christ and apples.
Green has an obvious connection to pine trees, wreaths, and garlands – plants that maintain their leaves and stay “alive” through the winter. In Christian symbolism, green represents eternal life through Christ.
White symbolizes purity and light and is linked to snow as well as angels. White candles and white lights are commonly used in Christmas displays.
Beyond the symbolic meanings, these three colors were likely appealing simply because they provided brightness and warmth during cold, grey winters.
Use in Winter Festivals
The prominence of red, green, and white in winter celebrations predates the establishment of Christmas. Romans marked the winter solstice with the festival of Saturnalia, decorating with greens and lighting candles and bonfires.
In Northern Europe, people celebrated Yule. Norse traditions involved bringing greens and red berries into the home, perhaps connected to the colors’ symbolism of plants that thrive in winter. Celebrants of old Germanic pagan traditions also decorated with evergreen branches for luck.
When Christmas absorbed elements of these existing festivals, it embraced the traditional colors. As Christianity spread, red, green, and white gained additional spiritual symbolism related to Christmas. But the colors’ seasonal appeal remained tied to the pagan festivals they were originally associated with.
Promotion Through Poetry and Songs
Over time, the popularity of red, green, and white Christmas decor grew. By the 1500s, holly and ivy were established as quintessential Christmas plants. While the trio of red, green, and white was clearly common, it was poems and songs that really cemented them as the definitive Christmas color scheme.
In 1843, the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, later known as “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”, established iconic imagery featuring the colors:
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
The poem mentions stockings, Christmas lights (“the moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow”), Santa’s red suit, and green wreaths on the reindeer horns. Other iconic Christmas poems and stories similarly ingrained the red, green, and white aesthetic.
Popular Christmas songs, most of which originated in the mid-to-late 19th century, also reinforced the colors through lyrics describing common decorations:
“Deck the Halls” mentions “boughs of holly”, while “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” references Christmas trees. “Jingle Bells” describes the red-painted one-horse open sleigh. Singing these songs year after year further cemented red, green, and white as the colors of the season.
Commercialization in the 20th Century
As Christmas became commercialized at the start of the 20th century, advertisements and mass media played a key role in popularizing red, green, and white decorations, goods, and packaging.
Department store ads portrayed Christmas trees decorated in the signature colors. Magazines and catalogs showed idealized holiday tablescapes including these colors. Christmas cards, postcards, and other mass-produced items overwhelming employed the red, green, and white trifecta in their designs.
Some notable examples:
- Coca-Cola helped popularize the image of Santa in red and white
- Green and red were used heavily in Christmas sales catalogs
- Green garlands and red poinsettias were promoted as decor
- Companies created Christmas logos using the colors
With the huge rise of consumerism surrounding Christmas, commercial promotion of products using red, green, and white imagery hugely boosted the ubiquity of the colors. When people decorated their homes and bought gifts, the holiday aesthetic they replicated was what they saw in ads and stores.
Modern Associations
Today, red, green, and white remain the defining palette of Christmas. Walk into a store or flip through a catalog in December, and you’re guaranteed to see the familiar colors adorning products, packaging, displays, and models’ clothing.
People continue to purchase classic red and green ornaments and lights, white artificial trees, and more. Red poinsettias and white Christmas lilies join evergreen wreaths and garlands as seasonal plants. Retail workers don red or green aprons or Santa hats over their uniforms.
The significance of the colors also persists. Red and green symbolize the holiday in a secular way, but also retain spiritual meaning from their origins. White maintains its connotation of purity and light. Using the Christmas palette feels deeply traditional, calling to mind familiar carols, poems, stories, and memories.
So while the trio of red, green, and white became cemented as Christmas colors relatively recently, the symbolism and emotional associations run much deeper. The sensory experiences of seeing these vivid colors amid grey winter instantly evokes the Christmas spirit. Their festive aesthetic endures as a hallmark of the holiday season.
Conclusion
Red, green, and white have come to represent Christmas through a history spanning centuries and continents. What began as plants representing life amid winter combined with colors symbolizing Christian meaning became a palette that feels instantly reminiscent of the holiday season. The colors gained significance through legends and festivals before being immortalized in poetry, song, and commercial iconography. Today red, green, and white retain their rich associations, instantly conveying the Christmas spirit. Their timeless aesthetic will likely continue inspiring joy and nostalgia for generations to come.
