It’s nothing to do with the Victorians, as many believe, but actually stretches back to medieval times – and two separate traditions.

The first is a custom of the Ancient Celts, who revered the holly plant because it was evergreen and kept the world beautiful in the winter.

While they didn’t use it to celebrate Christmas, they marked the Winter Solstice by decorating their homes with holly, which they thought would protect their family over the coming year.

But the connection of red and green to religious celebrations stems back to the 14th century when the colours were used to paint rood screens – the partitions that were installed in churches to separate the congregation from the priest and the altar.

While the Victorians brought in most of the Christmas traditions we follow today, Dr. Spike Bucklow, a research scientist at the University of Cambridge, believes the colour scheme was influenced by the painted screens.

He speculates that the physical barrier in the church became associated with marking the end of the old year and the beginning of a new one at Christmas.

While the tradition is centuries old, it was Coca Cola who finally sealed the deal when it comes to red.

When they hired a man called Haddon Sundblom to come up with a Christmas ad, he drew a fat, jolly Santa decked out in the red of the soft drink’s famous logo.

Before that Father Christmas had been drawn in all shapes and sizes, with a green, blue or red outfit.

But the Coke ad firmly fixed red as the colour of Christmas in our minds.

Arielle Eckstut, co-author of Secret Language of Colour, said: “It solidified in our collective imaginations the red of Santa’s robes with the green of fir trees and holly and poinsettia that we already had in our minds.”

Source : thesun