By Clifford Stanley
‘O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
Thy leaves are so unchanging;
‘O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!
‘Such pleasure do you bring me.’

The poinsettias, the junipers all decorated and lit up, are here again as visual delights symbolic of the season of Christmas.
These popular plants add the “Christmas touch” to homes and offices like nothing else can.
And they each have a story dating back to the early days of Christianity.
The poinsettia was discovered, in 1800, by the first US minister to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, who was also an avid botanist.

THE POINSETTIA
There is also a legend about the poinsettia which comes out of Mexico.

It tells of a girl named Maria and her little brother, Pablo. They were very poor, but always looked forward to the Christmas festival.

Each year, a large manger scene was set up in the village church, and the days before Christmas were filled with parades and parties.

The two children loved Christmas, but were always saddened, because they had no money to buy presents.

They especially wished they could give something to the church for the Baby Jesus. But they had nothing.

One Christmas Eve, Maria and Pablo set out for church to attend the service.

On their way, they picked some weeds growing along the roadside and decided to take them as their gift to the Baby Jesus in the manger scene.

Of course, other children teased them when they arrived with their gift, but Maria and Pablo said nothing, for they knew they had given what they could.

Maria and Pablo began placing the green plants around the manger, and miraculously, the green top leaves turned into bright red petals, and soon the manger was surrounded by beautiful star-like flowers.

THE JUNIPER
In the case of the juniper, many who cultivate the tree decorate it at Christmas time in honour of Joseph, Mary and the Baby Jesus, and at significant moments in the lives of the Holy Family.

The unique symbolism of the juniper tree is rooted in one of the many stories told about the flight of the Holy Family from Bethlehem to Egypt to escape the wrath of King Herod.
Paranoid about the birth of a new King, Herod had decided to kill all the children in the village of Bethlehem under two years of age, and by this means eliminate the threat to his throne.
Warned about the imminent slaughter, the Holy Family fled Bethlehem, but with Herod’s soldiers in hot pursuit.
In the legend, it is said that the juniper bush saved the lives of Joseph, Mary and the infant Jesus during their flight into Egypt.
The story goes that as the soldiers pursued them, the Holy Family hastened through fields of peas and flax, and thickets of various shrubs with hardly any cover in which to hide.
Then, a juniper bush growing nearby opened up its thick branches to enclose them.
The inside of the large bush became a soft bed, sheltering the fleeing family, while needles on the outside branches grew prickly as spears.
Herod’s soldiers could not penetrate the spiky branches of the juniper, and passed the family by.
So, the Juniper has since this episode in the flight to Egypt, been seen  as a reminder of the miracle of Joseph, the baby Jesus and Mary, the Mother of God during that period.
So, go ahead! Give yourself a treat! Decorate your home with the poinsettia or the juniper this Christmas!
They will remind you of those two stories. And the sight of the legendary trees in your home will certainly add immeasurably to the joy of the season.