I recently asked my YouTube gardening community: “Which color do you prefer, red or green?”
Here are the results:
- Red (10%)
- Green (50%)
- Neither one, Marion. But thanks for asking! (40%)
Lots of green fans out there, but I was surprised by how many people didn’t care for either color.
Still, when it comes to Christmas, it’s hard to imagine a time when the holiday wasn’t linked so tightly to red and green. But have these always been the main Christmas colors?
Today, we’ll take a closer look at how red and green became the colors of Christmas—and then shift to a few winter gardening chores you can do right now, including which red and green holiday items are compostable.
How Red and Green Became Christmas Colors
Most of us assume the colors come from holly wreaths, Santa’s suit, or the green of our Christmas trees. Those do play a part, but the story isn’t that straightforward.
Author Arielle Eckstut credits the red-and-green connection to two things: holly and Coca-Cola.
While researching her book, Secret Language of Color, she found that holly has been used in winter solstice celebrations for centuries. The prickly green leaves and bright red berries appeared in Roman festivals and were later linked to the crown of thorns in Christian tradition.
But how did red and green become the official colors of Christmas?
Eckstut says it comes down to marketing...
In 1931, Coca-Cola hired artist Haddon Sundblom to create a new Santa Claus for their holiday advertising. His jolly, round, bright-red Santa—whose suit matched the Coca-Cola logo—became enormously popular. Before this, Santa had appeared in red, green, or even blue robes, and Victorian Christmas cards showed all sorts of color palettes.
But Coca-Cola’s ads were a cultural home run. The company kept working with Sundblom for decades. However you feel about it, his version of Santa helped lock together the red of Santa’s robes and the green of fir trees, holly, and poinsettias already familiar to people.
What You Can Compost from Holiday Décor
As promised, let’s bring this back to the garden.
Many red and green holiday items are wonderfully compostable:
- Holly branches (remove ribbons or wires)
- Natural wreaths (as long as they aren’t coated in glitter or flocking)
- Christmas trees (best if chipped or cut into manageable pieces)
- Evergreen boughs used in arrangements
These materials break down fairly well and also provide excellent winter protection for garden plants.
If you lay evergreen branches over perennials such as primroses, garlic, delphiniums, bleeding hearts, blue poppies, or around shrubs like rhododendrons and raspberries, they help shield plants from harsh winter winds. Come spring, you’ll notice a difference between plants that were covered and those that weren’t. For more tips on using evergreen branches in the garden,
A Closer Look at Green
Green is the color of nature and rebirth. It’s calming to the eye and often associated with health. Around the world, it carries special meaning: a holy color in many Muslim countries and a lucky one in Ireland. It also stands in for ecology and environmental care.
In short, it’s a color gardeners naturally appreciate, wouldn't you agree?
A Closer Look at Red
Red sits opposite green on the color wheel. It stands for “stop,” danger, fire, passion, and blood. In many parts of Asia, red is a color of good luck.
Red also carries religious and historical meaning. For centuries, red dyes came from crushed insects such as the lac beetle and the cochineal, which lives on cacti. Many of today’s vivid reds still come from these sources.
More About Haddon Sundblom
Although he’s often remembered as the painter of the Coca-Cola Santa, Sundblom’s work stretched far beyond holiday advertising. He painted for many Fortune 500 companies and created some of the most recognizable faces in American marketing, including the Quaker Oats man.
Why Do Colors Matter So Much?
Eckstut’s research suggests that we are biologically wired to interpret the world through color. We know a banana is ripe because of its color. We know a sockeye salmon has entered freshwater because of its color, morphing from silver overall to a red body and a green head.
And in the garden, we often diagnose plant problems by color changes long before we know exactly what’s wrong.
So I guess it’s no surprise that red and green stuck.
General Winter Care Tips for Holiday Plants
If you have Christmas favorites like poinsettias, Christmas cacti, or amaryllis:
- Keep them evenly moist (not soggy)
- Rotate them often so they receive steady winter light
- Skip the fertilizer until spring
Thank you for being here,
If you’d like more ideas for protecting your plants from winter's cold, here’s a helpful video:
