It's Time...
- 2paperedwalls8
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
It's that time of year to start decorating. No, I don't mean a full-blown renovation or repainting an entire room heading into the Christmas holidays. You're more likely to focus solely on decorating for the Christmas season. I thought I'd give a mini-history lesson about how we came to get those classic greens and reds for Christmas. Side note: I am aware that Christmas is a Christian holiday. However, this article will primarily focus on the decorating aspect of the holiday.
Before the Victorians, and long before the modern Christmas era, people across Europe brought evergreen trees and holly into their homes during winter festivals to symbolize hope and renewal. Romans celebrated Saturnalia, decorating with lush greenery as a sign of life enduring through the darkness. With the advent of Christianity, evergreens, especially holly, acquired new significance: their persistent greenery represented eternal life. At the same time, the sharp leaves and bright red berries symbolized Christ's crown of thorns and the blood he shed.
You can thank the Victorians for many of the holiday traditions that we observe today. Victorian traditions played a critical role in cementing red and green as the classic colours of Christmas, shaping the holiday's modern visual identity in ways that continue to enchant us today. During the Victorian era, England experienced a revival of medieval church architecture. Restoration projects brought light rood screens, such as panels separating church spaces, painted in rich reds and greens. According to cultural historians, this rediscovery encouraged Victorians to use these colours, not just for their historic symbolism but also to mark boundaries between the mundane and the sacred. At Christmas, it translated to a celebration marking the transition from one year to the next, using striking colours to symbolize renewal.
Victorians treasured the warmth of family gatherings set amid cold, dreary winters. To counter the gray of industrial England, Victorians decorated their homes with evergreens, such as holly, ivy, pine, and mistletoe—whose lush foliage and red berries naturally highlighted the festive spirit. These decorations brought the "outside in," making green symbolic of life and hope, while red echoed both Christian and folk traditions of joy and sacrifice.
The rise of gas lighting during the Victorian era influenced colour choices for decorations. Gaslights made reds and greens appear especially vibrant and pleasing after dark, while other hues could look muddy or subdued. Home guides from the late 1800s recommended warm, glowing decorations.
Christmas cards, first popularized in Victorian England, featured an array of palettes, but red and green began to dominate as printing technology improved. The cozy atmosphere created by these colours reflected Victorian ideals of family, generosity, and tradition, ensuring their continued popularity and association with the holiday.
Fast-forward to today, the classic red and green scheme gained further momentum thanks to twentieth-century marketing, most famously through iconic Coca-Cola Christmas ads in the 1930s, featuring Santa Claus in dazzling red attire. Yet, these colours were emblematic of Christmas long before Coca-Cola put brush to canvas.
Whether you're nostalgic for the 90s decor, classic red and green or modern, muted colours, it's all good. I've added some Christmas paint colours suggestions for all your DIY decor crafts for the holiday season. Have fun!
References
“Red and green with a bit of literal gaslighting: The story of our Christmas colours.” CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/why-christmas-colours-are-red-green-gaslight-1.5835260 (accessed November 2025).
“How Did Red & Green Become The Official Colors of Christmas?” Rent-a-Christmas. https://www.rent-a-christmas.com/post/red-green-christmas-colors-history (accessed November 2025).
“Why Are Christmas Colors Red and Green?” Artsy. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-christmas-colors-red-green (accessed November 2025).
“What is the significance of the ‘Christmas colors’ red and green?” Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/christmas-colors-significance/ (accessed November 2025).
“How Did Victorians Decorate Their Homes for the Holidays?” RendevDC Blog. https://blog.rendevdc.com/post/victorian-holiday-decor (accessed November 2025).
“Victorian Christmas.” Royal Museums Greenwich. https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/victorian-christmas-traditions (accessed November 2025).
“Red and green with a bit of literal gaslighting: The story of our Christmas colours.” CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/why-christmas-colours-are-red-green-gaslight-1.5835260 (accessed November 2025).
“The Colors of Christmas.” Why Christmas.com. https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/colors-of-christmas.shtml (accessed November 2025).
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