The Surprising History Behind Kissing Under the Christmas Mistletoe

🐊 KNGT 🐊 | Louisiana — Alright y’all, let’s talk about one of the oldest Christmas traditions we still joke about today. You know how in all them Hallmark movies somebody always ends up standing under mistletoe and next thing you know, smooch city? Well that whole thing didn’t just pop up outta thin air. According to Countryliving.com, this is a little history lesson on the Plant.

The history of Mistletoe and Christmas.

It all starts with the Druids, they were out there treating mistletoe like it was magic. We’re talkin’ way back around the 3rd century BC. They believed the plant could heal just about anything. If you were sick, mistletoe. Bad luck, mistletoe. Couldn’t have kids, well… mistletoe again. And get this, when they found it growing on oak trees, which was super rare, they held a whole ceremony. They’d cut the mistletoe down and sacrifice two white bulls, hoping their god would bless the berries. Those berries went into a drink folks believed could cure any poison and help people and animals be fertile. So yeah, mistletoe was basically the OG power-up.

But none of that had anything to do with kissing just yet. That part came later thanks to some Norse mythology. According to the old Scandinavian stories, (stay with me, this part is boring) Odin and his wife Frigg had a son named Baldur. The kid was supposed to be killed someday, so Frigg went around begging every plant and animal not to hurt him. She forgot one tiny thing… mistletoe. And of course, the trickster Loki used it to make the weapon that killed Baldur. That sent Frigg into heartbreak. Her tears turned into the white berries we see on mistletoe today. She declared the plant would never be used for harm again. From that moment on, mistletoe would stand for love. And she promised to kiss anyone who walked underneath it. Folks back then even stood under it when trying to make peace after a fight.

So how’d all that end up wrapped up in Christmas? Well, thank Charles Dickens for that one. When he wrote The Pickwick Papers, he mentioned all the holiday kissing under mistletoe. Washington Irving wrote about it too. Victorian England went all-in after that. Homes were decked out with something called kissing balls, evergreen branches, ribbons, shiny things, and mistletoe right in the middle. If a woman ended up under one, she couldn’t turn down a kiss or else folks said she wouldn’t get married next year. And with every kiss, someone plucked off one of the berries. When the berries were gone, no more kissing. Kinda funny how organized they were about it.

We might not see mistletoe in every house these days. It’s pretty poisonous, so folks don’t always wanna mess with it. But the story behind it is a whole lot deeper than a cute holiday moment. It went from ancient healing plant to a symbol of peace to a Christmas tradition that still shows up in movies every year.

So next time you see mistletoe hangin’ around, just remember, that little sprig has been stirring up feelings for a whole lot longer than any of us have been here. And it’s way more interesting than any dancing Santa you’ll find at the store.