Joanna is musing on colours for this cold, wintry season…
Sophie’s recent blog about the scents (and tastes) of Christmas made me start thinking about the other senses too, and not just for Christmas. Thinking about the sense of sight, I found myself wondering why Christmas colours are green and red. Why not blue?
After all, blue is the colour of cold, usually, and the turning of the year is often cold. Like now, when we here in the UK are suffering sub-zero temperatures. Brrr. (Not quite as icy as that melting glacier, though.)
I’ve blogged about seasonal colour before, including the glorious reds and golds of autumn and the yellows and blues of spring. (The image left shows autumn in Siberia prior to what must be a very, very cold winter.)
Not sure I’ve ever had a go about winter colours though.
Colours of Christmas
I’m sure you’ve all taken down your Christmas decorations by now but I wonder what colours of baubles you had on your tree?
In our house, it’s red and silver with multi-coloured lights. On a green tree. So, yes, we do the standard colours: green and red. The lights look rather blue in this image but I assure you that they were actually white. Honest 😉
Did you know that Father Christmas and Santa Claus were originally two different figures? And that the colours of Father Christmas’s outfit were usually green and white (as shown in this hand-coloured illustration from A Christmas Carol)?
The Santa Claus tradition was imported from America (where it had been taken by Dutch settlers). The assumption that he should always wear red became accepted as the result of an advertising campaign in 1931 by (would you believe?) Coca Cola.
Yes, quite. Never underestimate the power of advertising.
Father Christmas is not Santa Claus
Father Christmas, in English folklore, was about adult feasting and merrymaking, not gifts for children. That aspect was pretty much lost after Father Christmas and Santa Claus became, essentially, one figure.
Pity, eh?
You’ll see from this image from the Illustrated London News of 1848, that’s he’s crowned with holly, carrying the Yule log and a wassail bowl. It’s not clear what colour his robe would have been, but it could easily have been green to match his crown.
And with all those feasting goodies… What’s not to like?
Red, I admit, is bright and cheery.
When you glance at Sophie’s image of this Kings Road elf, isn’t it the red on her cap and one stocking that draws the eye?
So it makes sense to have some red about during the dark days around the winter solstice. Like bright holly berries against the glossy dark green leaves of Father Christmas’s crown. They would have shone like jewels.
And I bet that a lot of the wrapping paper you used for Christmas gifts was red, or gold, or a mixture of the two.
Colours of January?
Blue, as I said, because it’s cold.
Other countries often have blue skies in midwinter. Think of all those snowy ski slopes against a fierce blue sky.
We don’t have many days like that in UK. Though, to be fair, this image does show a cloud hovering over the valley below. Down there, the bright blue sky probably wasn’t visible at all.
Blue, yes. But also grey, at least in the UK.
This is an image of my garden, under snow. Not a footprint in sight. The snow is pristine and white — we know that, of course we do — but does it look white? I’d say it looks miserably grey.
Maybe grey is the colour of winter, not red or green?
Colours can cheer us up
But Libertà is not here to depress its visitors with images of dull grey landscapes. There are other things to cheer us up. Usually with colours like red.
For example:
The world out there doesn’t want us to focus on grey. It wants us to spend money — assuming we have some left after everything we put in Santa’s sack — and it’s using the power of advertising, and colours like red, to persuade us. Check for yourself if you don’t believe me. Almost all SALE signs use red. Colours have impact, don’t they?
I’m going to attempt to cheer you up now. With colours, of course. Here is another picture of my garden in winter. There’s still snow. And it’s still pristine white. But this time, the sun has come out. And doesn’t that make everything seem better? There’s even, for once in the UK, a bright blue sky. Happy sigh. Lovely.
It will soon be Spring. Keep telling yourself that. As Sophie said, the days are getting longer and soon we’ll notice much lighter mornings and evenings. Hold onto that thought. And focus on the bright blue sky.
Blue may be the colour of cold, but it can also be the colour of spring and summer skies. And warm seas where we can swim to our heart’s content without freezing to death.
That may have sounded like one of the many January adverts for summer holidays but it really wasn’t. It was meant to be hopeful.
Like this lovely image of where I’m going on my hols this summer. Gorgeous thought to hang onto, don’t you think? I can’t wait…
Those blue pictures are making me shiver. I’m voting for red every time!
Can totally get that, Liz. Looking out of the window this morning, after rain rather than frost, everything is grey. So a bit of red feels cheerier. Sadly, no red in my garden right now.
Oh that blue sky over snow gives me hope, Joanna. Spring has definitely got as far as the dressing room. Thank you.
Welcome, Sophie. Blue sky with sunshine does give us hope, even in deep grey winter. Unfortunately, we don’t get skies like that too often in this country. But the days are getting longer…
That’s so interesting. I didn’t actually know Father Christmas and Santa Claus started out as two different people, but somewhere in the recesses of my memory, it rang a bell. Maybe I read it somewhere years ago? I’ve always preferred Father Christmas to Santa Claus as a term. It’s much warmer and cuddly. Outside my window right this minute, there’s sunshine glittering through the trees, but it’s very cold and the remnants of snow still on the ground. We only had a little, not like your garden, but it always feels a bit magical, just like Christmas really.
Those pics of my garden weren’t taken this year, Liz. We had snow, but not as much as that. But it has been really, really cold. Should warm up later this week, apparently.
Lovely post for a chilly day, Joanna. Interesting, too. Maybe it’s because those leaden skies and low light levels drain the colour from everything that we are so aware of colour in the winter months.
I love blue and silver, so clear blue skies and sparkling ice is lovely to look at (not so nice to venture out, though…). I love blue and silver decorations on the Christmas tree, too, although when the children were young it was just throw every decoration at it, no designer planning at all – but it still looked magical!
I love blue and silver on the tree too, Sarah, but my family voted for the red, so I do as I’m told. And the ice is SO dangerous, especially when you can’t see it. Luckily, it’s got warmer so less ice about for us to slip on.