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Loadsa mistletoe sales

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

Yesterday I looked up how many people were selling mistletoe in the UK via Facebook Marketplace – and found that there were dozens and dozens of them.  Some selling just a small amount, others with a production line of bundles tied with ribbon and a few advertising whole treefuls of mistletoe to anyone willing to come and gather it.  The screen shots above and below show just a small sample. I was a little astonished.  […]

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Mistletoe in Parliament

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

A recent query (in connection with this) about how we got Parliament’s approval for National Mistletoe Day in 2005, and a subsequent search for the relevant references, got me looking at mistletoe in parliament in general.  Does it get mentioned often?  And in what sort of context? The answer to ‘how often’ is ‘not very’.  But the answer to type of context is ‘very variable’ as a search through Hansard, Parliament’s formal record (and allied […]

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The Mistletoe Boats

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

Going through old trading accounts of mistletoe ( as I am today, compiling some figures for a research paper) I’m often surprised at the attention given to mistletoe imports, once acknowledged to be the main source of Christmas mistletoe in Britain.  Yes we do grow our own, and do still cut and sell our own, but there was once and probably still is a flourishing trade in imports, mainly from France. Newspaper coverage of these […]

berries , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Media , Mistletoe , Orchard , Science , social history

Mistletoe trade – then and now

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

Many of my mistletoe talks this season have had a history theme, looking back at mistletoe in days gone by – both ancient (myth, legend etc) and modern, describing how Christmas demand for mistletoe from the 19th century onwards made it a saleable product, not just a curious tree parasite. The trade in mistletoe grew and grew – built on the growing popularity of the kissing custom in the Victorian era and a desire, requirement […]