Herbs, Christmas have longtime relationship

Margaret Shelton

By RAY WYCHE
Staff Writer

Throughout the history of Christianity, herbs have played a big hand in Christmas celebrations.

The little twigs and leaves of aromatic plants are noted in early legends concerning the celebration of Christ’s birth, and for some people today, herbs play a big part in home decorations for the holiday and a bigger role in the kitchen.

Margaret Shelton of Shelton Herb Farm in Brunswick County recently told an audience at Lake Waccamaw Depot Museum about the history and legends of herbs and Christmas, as well as how to use the plants in holiday celebrations today.

Shelton brought along a broad selection of herbs connected with the holidays and gave detailed accounts of the origins and histories of legends regarding the plants as well as hints on how herbs can add to the Christmas decor in homes.

Perhaps the herb most associated with Christmas is rosemary, Shelton said.

“It smells like Christmas,” she said as she distributed sprigs of the herb for the audience to sniff. The herb can be used in cooking —particularly with pork dishes — in wreaths, and in tabletop decorations to spread its aroma throughout the house.

Many of the traditional plants and herbs used for Christmas decorations grow wild in our area, Shelton said.

She passed around a branch of wax myrtle, a common field-edge plant in Columbus County, and told how the small berries on female myrtle plants once were used to make candles. Wax myrtle (not to be confused with the flowering crape myrtle) leaves can be crushed and rubbed on the skin to repel insects, she said.

Probably the favorite locally grown Christmas decoration is the American holly. Female holly trees bear clusters of bright red berries among their shiny green leaves.

Shelton said the current drought has hurt the holly trees.

“All I’ve found have been so dry,” she said of the branches this year. People use holly in various types of indoor decorations.

Branches of juniper shrubs and trees are also a favorite Yuletide decoration in this area, she said.

“Juniper in early Europe was considered a protection for the home,” Shelton said.

Legends of rosemary and Christmas abound; one claims that aromatic rosemary twigs were hung in the stable where Jesus was born to purify the air. Another says Mary washed her and her baby’s garments and spread the clothing on rosemary bushes to dry.

Another folktale says that Mary, on the flight to Egypt with the Christ child, washed her blue cloak and spread it atop a rosemary bush to dry. Heretofore white rosemary blooms turned blue. Another bit of folklore holds that the rosemary plant will never grow taller than Christ.

Shelton said early residents of this nation often spread their freshly washed clothing on rosemary and lavender bushes to dry and to absorb some of the pleasant aromas of these plants.

The name rosemary is believed to come from the expression, rose of Mary.

Shelton recounted numerous other legends connected with Christmas and certain plants.

In early northern Europe, when celebrations of Christ’s birth first became widely observed, rosemary, ivy, bay, holly and mistletoe were used to decorate halls and homes in the drab and dark mid-winter months. Before the advent of Christianity, green branches were used in pagan winter religious ceremonies as symbols of renewed life that would be evident in a few weeks when the greenery of spring began to grow.

The use of trees inside houses to celebrate the nativity began later in northern Europe; the idea of a green, decorated tree is said to have been brought to England and spread to other countries when Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, came to England from his native Germany in 1840 to wed Victoria.

Shelton passed out branches and twigs of different herbs she grows for the audience to smell as she told of various ways the herbs could be used in cooking and in home decorating.

Shelton Herb Farm is located on Goodman Road, just off Highway 87, in Brunswick County. Shelton sells herbs at the farm and also at the Farmers Market in Wilmington.