There’s a story doing the rounds today that “wokery could put an end to kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas”. The comment is attributed to Nick Champion, the mistletoe auctioneer at Tenbury Wells*.
He said, apparently, in the context of mistletoe sales not being as good as they once were, that this was due in part to that fact “workers used to kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas parties, but with all the wokery nowadays they would be accused of abuse”.
Wokery? Really? Christmas party mistletoe – especially work parties – has been the subject of increasing restriction for years now. Decades actually. It makes the headlines, in some way, every year. I’ve referenced it here a few times. See entries in 2017 or 2008 but most especially this one twenty years ago from 2004 reporting on how RoSPA and the TUC issued guidance office parties and suggested mistletoe should be banned in case it leads to sexual harassment charges. That’s not ‘wokery’. And it’s not new. As Nick probably knows full well.
So basically it was just a comment made just to say ‘something’ about mistletoe to make a headline with the seedier end of the media. Guaranteed with ‘wokery’ and it worked (woked?) great! Though it makes no actual sense.
But he is right to suggest that sales of (real, actual) mistletoe have fallen, and possibly still are falling. There are two key factors to consider in that respect – neither of them due to “wokery”.
- Firstly, once upon a time, the British were a reserved people who didn’t kiss – in public – anyone other than their partners or family. Except at Christmas under the mistletoe. So mistletoe was highly valued – the ice-breaker at Christmas gatherings. But this is no longer the case – as a kiss here and there is much more acceptable these days, no mistletoe needed. This is backed up by Nick’s other quote “Young people aren’t interested in kissing under the mistletoe anymore”. They don’t actually need mistletoe! So not ‘wokery’ then – quite the opposite really!
- Secondly, once upon a time, the only mistletoe was, er, mistletoe. These days there is an awful lot of plastic or fabric and wire ‘mistletoe’ and, in many (possibly most) homes and probably most parties, it is that that is used for kissing under. You can use last year’s stuff too! So those people and events have no need to buy the real thing, they make do, quite happily, with fake stuff. No wokery there either. Just fakery.
Nick is also quoted as saying also “the older generation who used to cut it down and bundle it up are dying off and not being replaced”. That I’d agree with, to some extent, though I’d factor in the reduction in mistletoe harvesting resource (i.e. traditional apple orchards) which is a product of modern farming, not simply old farmers dying off. Indeed perhaps that older generation, who oversaw that orchard reduction, should be blamed for the decline in mistletoe harvesting, as it is they who reduced the harvesting potential. These days, it’s the new generation who are planting traditional orchards to undo the damage of recent decades – and it will be those that will provide mistletoe harvest of the future. Personally I have faith that the younger set are the key to mistletoe’s future, not the end of it.
*First auction of the season in Tenbury Wells is tomorrow Tuesday 26th November. The location at Burford House Garden Centre WR15 8HQ is outside the town so probably not directed affected by yesterday’s catastrophic floods. But if you do attend the auctions do try and visit the town as well and do some shopping – if shops are open. Tenbury needs a lot of help to recover.