Dreaming Of A Red Christmas

With Christmas approaching, there will soon be speculation over whether there will be a ‘white Christmas’, which even with all the concerns about the climate still happens now and then. But is white really the colour of the season?

There is perhaps as great a claim for red to be the colour of Christmas. After all, these are the colours of Father Christmas’s clothes, Rudolf’s nose, the Robin’s breast, the berries on the holly and the cranberry sauce that no Christmas dinner should be without. 

Father Christmas is often assumed to have got his scarlet garb via the artwork of the Coca-Cola marketing department. But this is not quite true.

While the popular image of him as a plump, bearded old man was designed by the fizzy drink company in the early 1930s, his depiction in red dated from Victorian times, stemming from the red robes worn by the historic figure he is based on, Saint Nicholas, a fourth century bishop in Asia Minor.

However Father Christmas got his red look, the colour is undeniably dominant. For that reason, perhaps it is the best time to get a red forever rose as a Christmas gift. This can be a loving, romantic gift that will brighten up any festive season and, just as importantly, remain for so much longer. 

The fact that it will last is one of the best things about it, for so much about Christmas is here today, gone tomorrow. After all, Father Christmas fills the kids’ stockings on Christmas Eve, then he and Rudolf are gone and forgotten. Small wonder: If he has the traditional glass of sherry at every house the level of his alcohol consumption is bound to ensure he doesn’t come back for a year.

Similarly, the presents below the tree will soon be gone, the cranberry sauce will have been consumed and any talk of a ‘White Christmas’ will centre on a repeat of Bing Crosby’s musical. How pleasing, therefore, that one glorious red gift will stand proud through this time and way past, through 2023.