Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you are having a wonderful day and have been kissed under the mistletoe. Have you ever wondered about the mistletoe plant, including how it became a tradition for giving or getting a kiss?

The following facts and fantasy may help answer those questions:

♦Mistletoe is an evergreen parasite. That means it doesn't drop its leaves in winter and doesn't grow in soil. It germinates and lives on another plant and dies when the host dies.

♦Mistletoe puts a special root system called “haustoria” into its host, a tree, and then extracts nutrients from that tree.

♦Though you can sometimes purchase seed of the American Mistletoe Phoradendron leucarpum, it is almost never successfully cultivated. Birds are most often responsible for “planting” mistletoe on trees by consuming the berries elsewhere and then rubbing their beaks on the tree or leaving droppings that contain the seeds.

♦The American generic name is based on the Greek “Phor” meaning “thief” and “dendron” meaning “tree” because it steals the life juices from the host tree.

♦The favorite trees seem to be apple, hawthorn, linden and oak. In America, mistletoe can be found on trees from New Jersey to Florida and west to southern Illinois and Texas.

♦Mistletoe berries are toxic, which is one reason they are hung high, out of reach of children and pets. Today, to prevent poisoning and increase shelf life, we most often purchase the plastic version.

As with many of our traditions, the reasons for them have gotten lost in antiquity and, although we love the idea of the practice, we don't often know why. The following stories may clear up some of the mysteries around mistletoe:

♦In ancient times, the Druids believed whatever grew on trees was sent from heaven. When mistletoe was found on a tree, they thought the tree had been chosen by the gods and was therefore sacred. They made great ceremony of welcoming the new year by cutting the mistletoe branches and distributing pieces of it to protect people from ghosts and disease during the new year.

♦Although many sources say kissing under the mistletoe is a purely English custom, there's another, more interesting account that extends back into Norse mythology. It's the story of a loving, if overprotective, mother.

The Norse god Balder was the best-loved of all the gods. His mother was Frigga, goddess of love and beauty. She loved her son so much she wanted to make sure no harm would come to him, so she went through the world securing promises from everything that sprang from the four elements (fire, water, air and earth) that they would not harm Balder.

Loki, an evil spirit, found a way around this: He discovered mistletoe. He made an arrow of mistletoe wood and took it to Holder, Balder's blind brother. By guiding Holder's hand, Loki directed the arrow at Balder's heart, and Balder fell dead.

Frigga was heartbroken, her tears turned into the mistletoe's white berries and Balder was restored to life. Frigga was so grateful that she reversed the reputation of the plant, making it a symbol of love and promising to bestow a kiss upon anyone who passes under it.