Click the tartan to view its entry in The Scottish Registers of Tartans which includes registration details, restrictions, and registrant information.
Unregistered tartans may link to one of the web's online design environments for similar information.
For any questions about reproduction of designs or weaving of these tartans, please contact the registrant directly or via this website.
The Christmas Season
"🎶 Oh, the mistletoe bough!"
~ The Mistletoe Bough, 1830 ballad
This tartan is designed to captivate, perhaps even subtly encouraging the wearer—or an admirer—to drift toward an inviting sprig or wreath of mistletoe! Dressing for the holidays often extends beyond seasonal hues in attire to include the "decking of the halls" with boughs of holly and mistletoe, often arranged into a festive "kissing-bough." The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe is believed to trace back to the first-century Druids, who revered the plant as sacred. Its ability to blossom even in the frozen depths of winter made it a potent symbol of new life, used medicinally for both humans and animals in hopes of restoring fertility. Mistletoe also holds a prominent place in Scandinavian legend. Balder, the god of Peace, was tragically slain with an arrow fashioned from mistletoe. However, through the intervention of his god-parents, Odin and Frigga, Balder was restored to life. The mistletoe, once an instrument of harm, was entrusted to the goddess of Love, who decreed that all who pass beneath its branches should share a kiss—transforming the plant into a timeless emblem of love and reconciliation. ❤️ 🤍 💚 💗 💋 🌱
Dressing for the holidays can often include not only seasonal colours for one's clothing, but traditional decorations, including decking the halls, not only with boughs of holly, but often with the mistletoe herb, in the form of a "kissing-bough."
Kissing under sprigs of mistletoe is a well-known holiday tradition, but this plant’s history as a symbolic herb dates back thousands of years. Many ancient cultures prized mistletoe for its healing properties.
The plant’s romantic overtones most likely started with the Celtic Druids of the 1st century A.D. Because mistletoe could blossom even during the frozen winter, the Druids came to view it as a sacred symbol of vivacity, and they administered it to humans and animals alike in the hope of restoring fertility.
Mistletoe’s associations with fertility and vitality continued through the Middle Ages, and by the 18th century it had become widely incorporated into Christmas celebrations. As part of the early custom, men were allowed to steal a kiss from any woman caught standing under the mistletoe, and refusing was viewed as bad luck.
This tartan, by designer Carol A.L. Martin, employs the traditional red and green on a snowy background for a Christmas tartan of holiday elegance.
The story, "The Legend of the Mistletoe Bough," tells the sad tale of a newlywed bride who accidentally locks herself in an old oak trunk while playing hide-and-seek with members of her wedding party, who then spend a long night searching for her in vain.
From tragic story to traditional Christmas song, this 1830 ballad begins:
THE MISTLETOE BOUGH
The mistletoe hung in the castle hall,
The holly branch shone on the old oak wall;
And the baron's retainers were blithe and gay,
And keeping their Christmas holiday.
The baron beheld with a father's pride
His beautiful child, young Lovell's bride;
While she with her bright eyes seemed to be
The star of the goodly company
Oh, the mistletoe bough.
Oh, the mistletoe bough.
For the rest of the song, click the cheerier picture of Robin Hood stealing a kiss under a mistletoe bough, by J.C. Leydendecker, from the Dec 23, 1933 issue of The Saturday Evening Post.