Red and Green
Red and green are almost synonymous with Christmas. In recent years, different colour palettes and themes have come about with new marketing such as white trees or green trees with pastel coloured baubles. But there is nothing like the classic of red and green.
Red wrapping paper, red berries, green trees, green holly, red Santa suits, green wreaths. Put the two together and most of us probably think of Christmas almost immediately.
But why these two colours, what makes them work so well together?
Colour Wheel
The colour wheel was initially designed by Sir Isaac Newton when he was doing his work with prisms and light. He saw the colours of visible light, the rainbow, and then organised those colours into a wheel. Today the wheel is used by artists and designers and still serves as a tremendously useful tool for exploring the relationships between colours.
Red and green are complementary colours. They sit opposite each other on the colour wheel, which means that when they are placed together, they create contrast. Each colour makes the other appear stronger.
It is one reason the combination works so well visually. But our association between red, green and Christmas isn't simply because they happen to look nice together.
It comes from a mixture of nature, history, tradition, stories and, eventually, advertising.
Red
Red is one of the oldest colours used by humans, if not the oldest aside from black, if you want to call black a colour!
Red ochre is an iron clay that was used for the earliest red pigments. Depending on the source, the colour produced can range from reds to oranges and even yellows. Early humans used it for decorating their bodies, walls, objects and in burial practices.
Other sources of red pigments include insects such as the cochineal insect, a scale insect or from plants such as Madder. When using insects, they are collected, dried and crushed to produce a strong red pigment. This pigment is actually still used in modern times.
Throughout history, depending on the source of the pigment and the use of it, the meaning and traditions around red changed. It could represent blood, heat and danger. But depending on the culture and period, it could also represent power, wealth, celebration, luck or good fortune.
Green
Green has a slightly different story. It is everywhere in nature and is typically associated with calm, balance and the natural world. But creating a green pigment to use for decorative purposes was not as easy as creating red.
One natural source to create a green pigment was malachite, a green copper mineral. It could be ground down into a powder and used as a pigment. Some plants were used but their colour faded easily. It wasn't really until the industrial revolution when synthetic pigments were being discovered and created that a bright long lasting green pigment finally came about. However, the first versions of these turned out to bring more problems.
Scheele's Green, for example, was a vivid synthetic green pigment developed in the eighteenth century and made using arsenic. It was used in everything from wallpaper to clothing and decorative objects before its toxicity became better understood.
So the colour green, despite being one of the most common colours in nature, has had quite a complicated history as a pigment.
Nature. Plants. Life. Freshness. Balance. But none of these meanings are actually contained within the colour itself, they're contained in the meaning we apply.
Colours Don't Have Meanings
Red and green are simply different wavelengths of visible light and we attach meaning. Meaning also changes with time, space and society. Red doesn't inherently mean danger or love or Santa Claus. Green doesn't inherently mean nature or envy or holly. We attach those meanings to them and they change with time.
Which brings us back to Christmas.
Why Red and Green For Christmas?
Evergreen plants are probably the most obvious place to start. They keep their foliage all year round so in winter time, evergreens provide that much needed boost of colour and vitality in cold dark and grey months of northern Europe.
Evergreens were incorporated into winter traditions and celebrations, including those surrounding the winter solstice, before Christianity spread throughout Europe. As Christian Christmas traditions developed, greenery became part of the decoration.
By around the sixteenth century, the Christmas tree began to emerge as a recognisable tradition in German-speaking parts of Europe, eventually spreading elsewhere.
Then came the Victorians. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert helped popularise the decorated Christmas tree in Britain after an illustration of the royal family around their tree appeared in the press in the nineteenth century. After this, decorations became more elaborate, particularly as mass production was growing.
Holly was associated with this season just as much as the evergreen plants because holly also remained green and bright during the winter. The natural palette of green and red must have served as an inspiration, as it is naturally a pleasing colour combination.
Santa Claus had been represented in many different ways before the twentieth century, with different colours and styles of clothing. But Coca Cola popularised the current famous figure in his big red suit, white beard and jolly persona. The advertising didn't invent Santa or the red suit. But it helped reinforce and popularise a particular version of him.
This helped to solidify the colour palette of Christmas.
A Colour Palette Becomes Tradition
There wasn't one moment when someone decided, red and green are the colours of Christmas. It was gradual accumulation of events, changes and traditions.
Red and green are complementary colours so this naturally creates that harmony and helped the colour palette to stick for so long. So when we decorate a Christmas tree with green branches, red baubles and red ribbons, the colours make each other stand out.
It looks festive because we've learnt that it is festive. But it also happens to look good. Which is perhaps why, after centuries of changing traditions, the same two colours still appear every December.
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