Why were red and green chosen to become the Christmas colors?
Christmas Colors – Every holiday season, the colors red and green are used more frequent and featured in decorations, items of clothing, gifts and more.
So how were these two colors chosen? Based on the video posted by Business Insider, there is no specific and clear story of how red and green became the colors of Christmas. There was no specific declaration that these colors would be the holiday season’s colors.
Arielle Eckstut, the co-author of The Secret Language of Color, explained that the green and red becoming the colors of Christmas is a combination of the beauty of nature and the crassness of commerce.
Talking about nature, Christmas comes with a colder climate and this would make you think about the holly trees – the red berries against the green foliage of the tree. This plant has been associated with human history as this was used to make Jesus Christ’s thorn crown.
Since Holly is the only plant that gives bright red and green colors during the winter, this somehow gave people the perception that this has become a symbol of the season. Pagans used this and eventually, this spread to the next generations.
The green and red color combination was also associated with Victorians during Christmas but Eckstut said that it can be seen in their Christmas cards that the two colors are not really just the dominant colors. Some colors are added like blue and white, and different palettes.
Even the older version of Santa Claus, one of the most popular Christmas characters, was not depicted in red robes during the Victorian era. This only changed during the early part of the 20th century because artists started to depict him in red robes.
In 1931, Coca-Cola hired artist Haddon Sundblom to depict Santa Claus and he showed an incredibly fat, jolly, red-cheeked fellow wearing a red and white robe. The beverage company used this as its big Christmas campaign and this gave way to red and green more visible during this season. Then, the two colors became the Christmas colors.
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