Only a bit over three weeks and we celebrate Christmas but let’s also get into the spirit with Hanukkah from December 7 to December 15. Canada’s Boxing Day and then Kwanzaa carries us from December 26 to the New Year. It should be a time to rejoice and share aloha, but also recognize that there are many folks suffering here at home and many parts of the world. A prayer for peace and aloha could never be more important than now.
As Christmas arrives, the days will actually be getting longer. As the days lengthen, our garden plants begin to swell with the anticipation of spring. Even in Hawaii where winters are mild, we feel the pulse of new life. Precipitation in east and west Hawaii has also helped pump life into resting shrubs and trees. Flowering season for Kona coffee, for example, may be early this year due to pre-Christmas rains.
Christmas is relatively new here compared to Europe and America. It was not officially celebrated until it was formally made a holiday by King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma in 1862. The song “Mele Kalikimaka” composed by Robert Alex Anderson wasn’t around until 1949 and the rosy-cheeked Santa Claus seen on the mainland has darker skin here. So the holiday in Hawaii has evolved to represent the amazing cultural mix of the islands. Our Christmas gifts are rather unique as well.
Christmas is a perfect time to fill your home and lanai with poinsettias and other flowering plants. It’s also a great time to give natural, living gifts to those you love.
Now many nurseries and garden shops are bright with potted poinsettias, bougainvillea, hibiscus, bromeliads and orchids.
If you still have a list of friends and relatives for whom you haven’t found just the right gift, then stop by a few local nurseries, garden and flower shops to complete your holiday shopping.
Watch for the many varieties of hibiscus. Even the common Chinese hibiscus with its red flowers and green foliage is appropriate. The gardenia with white flowers and green leaves is also ideal. Another gift that is a natural is the ever-blooming jatropha tree. It’s ideal for a holiday gift with its bright red flowers and dark green foliage. The tree will grow to a maximum of 15 feet with spreading branches, and is good for the small garden.
For a frosty effect give the silver buttonwood that will also form a large shrub or small tree with blue-gray foliage. Other possibilities are the snow queen hibiscus and white poinsettia, (Euphorbia leucocephala) with its miniature flowers. It is in full bloom now in Kona. Both the white poinsettia and the common poinsettia are easily grown from cuttings after they finish blooming.
Many palms are ideal as Christmas gifts. The pygmy date palm and Chamaedorea species are miniatures. Palms with red and green foliage such as the latania palm with leaf stalks and fan leaves are unusual and rare.
Blooming orchid plants and anthuriums are just a few other ideas you might consider.
Don’t forget the popular Norfolk Island pine as a living gift. Used as a living Christmas tree, it may then be planted outside after the holidays or kept in a pot for several years.
But remember, most of the things we associate with Christmas have little to do with the real meaning. We make it special by giving and sharing. Yes, there are cynics who complain about the holiday. They see it as being tainted by commercialism with everyone having to give gifts and buy this or that, but gifts given with a loving heart are what count!
When it comes down to the place of Christ’s birth, date palms were probably more common than pine trees. The use of the Christmas trees is believed to have originated in Germany. During the 8th century, a missionary, St. Boniface, was trying to stamp out the rite of sacrificing people to the oak tree. He led these tree worshiping people into the forest in the dead of winter to show them the only tree with no cursing stain of blood upon it. This was the evergreen fir, which lives and grows when earth is darkest. The missionary showed them that the tree pointed upward toward the Christ child. He told them to take this tree into their homes as a symbol of their newfound faith.
The holly for thousands of years has had all manner of mystical charms and qualities attributed to it. The use of holly at Christmas was likely to have come from the Teutonic custom of hanging holly in their houses. They did this so that the tree sprites might have a warm, safe shelter from winter storms.
The mistletoe originally had nothing to do with Christmas, it was considered sacred by those same tree worshipers because it grew on oaks. To this day in Europe, amulets and rings of mistletoe are worn as an antidote against sickness.
Christmas is really about what is in the loving heart. In Hawaii, it is the ultimate essence of aloha. Christmas is truly the celebration of the gift of life, love and giving in the purest sense! May we all celebrate our many blessings and share with others during this special season. Mele Kalikimaka e hauoli makahiki hou!
Norman Bezona is professor emeritus, University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.
