So my grand idea to survive the holidays as a single woman … (wait for it…) take full advantage of the situation and always have plenty mistletoe on hand…ya know, just in case some tall dark and handsome friend of the family who’s been secretly pining away for you for years happens to show up at your aunt’s Christmas party because he heard you were newly available. Yes, I still believe in Santa! 

So that lead me to thinking – what makes this little plant so ….aphrodisiatic? (yes, I made up that word). (And please keep in mind that this is one of those posts written after about three glasses of Zin, so please bear with me…(after all – how else do you propose I get through the holidays in one piece?)

What are the origins of the mistletoe? Why have generations of us either been trapped or ensnared others to succumb to our own physical affections because of a little plant? Either willingly or begrudgingly? Where did it all start? And could we perhaps extend this tradition throughout the year with say….daisies or roses, or shrubberies (if you’re a Monty Python fan) any common garden variety plant would work, really – anything you may conveniently hang and dry in your homes. I mean, a girl should be kissed regularly regardless of the season!

But sadly, ‘tis not the case. And ‘tis the season for this little plant (which, is actually a parasite – ironic and somehow fitting, isn’t it?). And so, without further ado, for your edification and education – and just because I’ve been celebrating a bit too much at the office Christmas party – here are there origins of the mistletoe tradition – spreading mononucleosis the world over.

Merry Christmas, my dear, dear readers. And a big mistletoe kiss to all, and to all a good night.

Frankly,

KISSING UNDER THE MISTLETOE

Nowadays, mistletoe is commonly used as a Christmas decoration, though allusions to mistletoe as a Christmas green were rare into the eighteenth century. Viscum album is used in Europe whereas Phoradendron serotinum is used in North America. According to a custom of Christmas cheer, any two people who meet under a hanging of mistletoe are obliged to kiss. The custom is British rather than Scandinavian in origin.

According to custom, the mistletoe must not touch the ground between its cutting and its removal as the last of Christmas greens at Candlemas; mistletoe might remain hung through the year, often to preserve the house from lightning or fire, until it was replaced the following Christmas Eve.The tradition has spread throughout the English-speaking world but is largely unknown in the rest of Europe. The appearance and nature of the fruit's content (viscin) is very similar or suggestive of human semen and this has strengthened its pagan connections.

Using the mistletoe to kiss under has even become incorporated into various holiday songs. The 1943 song I'll Be Home for Christmas tells the story of a lonely traveler looking forward to coming home and seeing, among other things, mistletoe. The Mistletoe is mentioned in the song "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" ("The Christmas Song"), made famous by Nat King Cole, and written by Mel Torme. The song "A Holly Jolly Christmas" sung by Burl Ives, and used for the TV special "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", features the line, "Ho Ho, the Mistletoe", and the line, "Kiss her once for me". In 1961 singer Aretha Franklin released a Christmas song called Kissin' by the Mistletoe. In 1971 singer Lynn Anderson recorded the song Mr. Mistletoe on her holiday album The Christmas Album. The song talks about an elf who hangs mistletoe in homes so that people can "steal a kiss from someone that they know". In 2001 Barbra Streisand released the song It Must Have Been the Mistletoe.

IN CULTURE AND MYTHOLOGY

Mistletoe figured prominently in Norse mythology: the god Baldur was killed with a weapon made of mistletoe. Mistletoe bears fruit at the time of the Winter Solstice, the birth of the new year, and may have been used in solstitial rites in Druidic Britain.

In Celtic mythology and in Druid rituals, it was considered an antidote to poison, but it is now known that the fruits of many mistletoes are poisonous if ingested, as they contain viscotoxins.

A Christian tradition says that mistletoe was once a tree, and furnished the wood of the Cross. After the Crucifixion, the plant shriveled and became dwarfed to a parasitic vine.

In Romanian traditions, mistletoe (vâsc in Romanian) is considered a source of good fortune. The medical and the supposed magical properties of the plant are still used, especially in rural areas.

Mistletoe has sometimes been nicknamed the vampire plant because it can probe beneath the tree bark to drain water and minerals, enabling it to survive during a drought. William Shakespeare gives it an unflattering reference in Titus Andronicus, Act II, Scene I: "Overcome with moss and baleful mistletoe".

Mistletoe is the state floral emblem for the State of Oklahoma. The state did not have an official flower, leaving the Mistletoe as the assumed state flower until the Oklahoma Rose was designated as such in 2004.

In a popular myth, confusing Mistletoe and the Holly 'holy' Tree, the most sacred tree of the Druids, it is said that Mistletoe was cut with a gold sickle and it lost its power if it fell and touched the ground. The confusion arises from both plants being green all year and both having colorful fruits as well as sharing similar history concerning the winter months.