Mistletoe and Holly auctions; a very berry Christmas

From the Winter 2021 issue of 'My Countryside' magazine, Kate Gatacre looks at the festive meaning behind holly and mistletoe at Christmas, and discovers how one auctioneer is keeping alive a tradition with the infamous auctions of Tenbury Wells.

Both holly and mistletoe were important, especially during the cold winter months, to our Druid, Celtic and Roman ancestors. Holly, with its ability to keep its leaves and berries bright and healthy for so long was thought to assure the return of spring, and later, when Christianity came to these shores, was symbolic of the crown of thorns. Holly, in fact, was the "Christmas Tree" before we adopted the practice of decorating a Norway Spruce, which became popular during the reign of Victoria.

We in the UK are by no means alone in our associations with mistletoe: from Greece to Norway, and everywhere in between, this strange, parasitic plant has a history that dates back millennia. Norse culture believed it symbolic of love and peace, while the berries were considered a sign of male fertility in Pagan culture and the Greeks referred to the plant as "oak sperm". Romans hung it over doorways as a symbol of peace, love and understanding. References of it being used at Christmas, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe, date to the 18th century. The kissing tradition continued and during the Victorian era, the tradition became more formalised: a man was allowed to kiss any woman standing underneath mistletoe. With each kiss a berry should be plucked and the kissing should stop after all the berries were gone.

Mistletoe, to be in its prime, needs a bit of frost to turn the berries from green to the pearlescent white that most people recognise. And while it is mostly seen on the apple trees so prevalent in the Marches (the borderlands of England and Wales) it can colonise poplars and willows, too. It particularly likes the area due to the damp cool conditions, which is why it is so common in the area. It does grow on the Continent, but not at all in Ireland.

Today, when you find mistletoe and holly for sale at your local vegetable shop or florist, there's a good chance it has passed through a small town in Worcestershire, Tenbury Wells, which is the last remaining town to have an official auction. A century ago, many towns in the main growing areas of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire would hold sales in the cattle markets, and indeed the Tenbury auction was held in the town's traditional cattle market until 2004.

Nick Champion, whose business encompasses not only property sales, but land management and agricultural auctions, has run the holly and mistletoe auctions since 1977. He says: "Today we run the auction at Burford House Garden Centre. The bulk of our holly comes from Worcestershire, as well as Shropshire and Herefordshire which border us. Holly is a huge feature in the upland hedges of this area, so mostly it is from local livestock farms.

"The mistletoe comes from the orchards of the area. It was the holly that made up the auctions a century ago, and Tenbury was always one of the main auction sites for it, as there was a station. Tonnes and tonnes would be sent to the Midlands, London and the north of the country. Until a few years ago we had lots of wholesalers buying at the auctions, but the advent of the big supermarkets coming to market towns has meant they barely exist anymore. Mostly our buyers are florists, farm shops and garden centres. We have one regular buyer who has a Christmas tree farm and buys large quantities to go with his Christmas trees. The main sale will normally attract between 100 and 120 registered buyers, but I don't know what this year will look like. Last year, of course, we couldn't have the auction due to the lockdown, but we were able to source holly and mistletoe for some regular customers."

Sometimes the holly crop fails to produce berries or, in a hard year, the fieldfares will arrive early and demolish the bright red berries. But this year, Nick says, "Is looking good as far as the holly is concerned. Sadly, though, there's far less interest in the traditions of decorating your house with holly and mistletoe. Not many of this generation have grown up with it, and most buy plastic decorations, which is a shame. The auctions have been held here for around 160 years, so it is a big part of the town's history."

The auction takes places outside, with bundles of mistletoe weighing around 10 to 15kg lying on plastic sheets, and buyers get the chance to walk between the aisles of holly and mistletoe bunches before the auction starts. Nick leads the buyers from aisle to aisle, auctioning off the lots as he goes. In 2019, the auction had nearly 1,000 lots of mistletoe, as well as some 3,000 wreaths of holly, and it is a spectacular sight all laid out.