Mistletoe

Mistletoe

       A wiki link on the subject can be found at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistletoe

Here's one mistletoe story and "recipe":

            The lore of mistletoe goes back to Celtic and Norse mythology.

Celts believed mistletoe was a sacred plant that had healing powers and could ward off evil spirits, said Ralph Thompson, mistletoe expert at Berea College.

In Norse mythology, mistletoe is rooted in the myth of Balder, the god of the summer sun.

Balder dreamed he was going to die. His mother, Frigga, became distraught when she heard this and asked the air, fire, water and all the plants and animals to spare her son.

But Loki, the god of evil, found one plant Frigga had overlooked - mistletoe - because it grew neither in the ground nor underground. He made a poison arrow of mistletoe and tricked Balder's blind brother into shooting Balder.

For three days the earth grew dark. It rained constantly. Frigga cried tears that turned into white berries on the mistletoe plant. When she kissed her dead son, her kiss reversed the mistletoe's poison, and he came back to life.

She declared that anyone who walked under a tree where mistletoe grew should receive a kiss. Thus mistletoe became a symbol of love.

As Christianity spread in Europe, Celtic and Norse practices were condemned as pagan rituals, and banned. Not until Victorian times did kissing under the mistletoe gain acceptance again, and mistletoe became a symbol of romance and good luck.

Make your own kissing ball

Assuming you have boxwood and a sprig of mistletoe, it's easy to make a pretty kissing ball to hang in the doorway, all in the spirit of promoting love and romance this holiday season.

We asked Nancy Edwards to demonstrate how to make one. Edwards, recently retired from the Franklin County Cooperative Extension Service, taught classes in making Williamsburg-style Christmas decorations for 15 years.

Supplies
bleach
regular 7-Up
medium potato
awl or long nail
coat hanger
needle-nose pliers
2 yards 7/8-inch red ribbon
glue
one-half bushel of 6-inch sprigs of boxwood
wire florist pins
sprig of mistletoe

Directions Submerge boxwood overnight in 1 quart water, 1 quart regular 7-Up and 2 tablespoons bleach.

With the awl, make a hole through the center of the potato. Straighten the coat hanger. Push one end through the potato and, with the pliers, make a hook in the end. Pull the hanger back through the potato so the hook embeds itself in the end of the potato. Make a hook in the other end.

Cover the coat hanger. Cut two pieces of ribbon the length of the wire, then put a thin line of glue along the ribbon edges and press them together on both sides of the wire.

Trim the boxwood into 6-inch-long pieces. Strip leaves from the stem end. Cut the stems on the diagonal to make them easier to push into the potato.

Make the first row of holes about 1/2 inch apart, from top to bottom, down one side of the potato, then the other side. Finish studding the potato with boxwood.

"Don't go back and give it a hair cut to make it perfectly round," Edwards said. You want it shaggy so it looks more natural.

Attach a bow, mistletoe and ribbon streamers to the bottom with florist pins. Add a bow to the top of the potato and the top hook. Hang the ball from a doorway.