#92: Christmas Decorations

The Cru record from their annual Christmas retreat, bringing you tales of a Christmas ghost story; two brothers, bringing home a tree; poems about winter and the holidays; and a first date. From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:  Christmas decorations. The Roman festival of SATURN was held in December and the temples were decorated with greenery. The DRUIDS are associated with MISTLETOE, and the Saxons used HOLLY and IVY. These customs have been transferred to the Christian festival. The holly (popularly associated with 'holy') is called 'Christ's thorn' in Germany and Scandinavia, from its use in church decorations and its berries, which are borne about Christmas time. The early Christians gave an emblematic turn to the custom, referring to the 'righteous branch', and justifying it from Isaiah 60:13: 'The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary.'The decorated Christmas tree was in use among the Romans and was introduced to Britain from Germany soon after Queen Victoria's marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe- Coburg-Gotha in 1840. SANTA CLAUS and his reindeer came to Britain at the same time although RUDOLPH did not join them until much later. Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!  Be sure to follow us on Instagram (if that's your sort of thing). Please do send us an email with your story if you write along, which we hope you will do. Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.