Kissing Under the Mistletoe

Kissing Under the Mistletoe

By Margaret Daley

Christmas is around the corner—five weeks away, EEK!! I’m not ready—and one of the traditions that has been around for hundreds of years is kissing under the mistletoe. But where in the world did that tradition start. Why mistletoe in the first place? Mistletoe is a parasite, living off the trees it is attached to. The berries on it are poisonous. That doesn’t sound like a good candidate to romantically kiss someone special.

And yet, Washington Irving referred to the practice in his writing, Christmas Eve. The mistletoe was hung in the house and a young man could kiss a girl under it and then pluck a berry from the mistletoe. Once there were no more berries, the kissing had to stop. Obviously somewhere along the way, that part was dropped. Now we kiss as many times as we want until the mistletoe.

It goes back even further than Washington Irving’s time to an ancient Scandinavian custom of two opponents laying down their arms if they found themselves in the woods under mistletoe. The next day they could pick them back up. The custom goes back to a Norse myth about Baldur. His mother, Frigga, made every plant, animal and inanimate object not to harm her son. Except she forgot about the mistletoe plant. Loki talked another one of the Norse gods into killing Baldur with a spear made from mistletoe. After Baldur’s death, some felt it was agreed that mistletoe would bring love rather than death. An aside note here is that mistletoe was believe to be a fertility herb to the ancients.

Have you ever kissed someone under mistletoe?

Margaret Daley’s new release is Mistletoe Kisses (a collection of new novellas from Margaret Daley, Janet Trodstad, Lacy Williams, Camille Elliot, Lisa Mondello, Lenora Worth, Cheryl Wyatt and Pamela Tracy). Eight stories of inspiration ranging from contemporary romance to romantic suspense to historical romance. Until December 1^st, Mistletoe Kisses will be on sale for 99¢. Buy links at Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble and Kobo.