Traditional Christmas Color Schemes

Jingle bells! Jingle bells! Jingle all the way!

When it comes to Christmas, what color is in your mind? Red? Green? Or gold? Check out these classic Christmas color schemes to inspire your own colorful Christmas gifts ideas.

Classic Red and Green

Try visualize red, what do you see? Roses, wine, lipstick... or even Christian Louboutin? Red represents love, enthusiasm, rebellion and restlessness, and is always the dress code of Santa Claus. Red can easily attract our attention in this colorful world. As such, red is undoubtedly the most eye-catching symbol of Christmas. The magical mix of warm and cold and traditional culture of Christmas make “red-and-green” the most popular color scheme in December, which is unusually appreciated by everyone. So how did red and green become the colors of Christmas?

Related: The Ultimate Guide to Christmas Gifts 2021

Centuries ago, the Celtic believed that since the holly is ever green and always survive winter, it can protect people from death and will bring good fortune. Therefore, they decorated their houses with holly in wither. The Holly and the Ivy, a famous Christmas son from UK, symbolizes the birth of Jesus with holly:

The holly bears a berry,

As red as any blood,

And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ

For to do us sinners good.

The red berries represent Jesus’s blood on the cross while the spiky holly leaves stand for the crown of thorns on his head.

In 1931, Coca-Cola hired Michigan-born illustrator Haddon Sundblom to create a new kind of Santa for magazine advertisement. Before then, there were many versions of Santa with different faces and outfits. Haddon Sundblom designed his version based on a poem called A Visit From St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore:

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,

And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;

...

His eyes - how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

...

he had a broad face and a little round belly,

that shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.

These ads ran from 1931 to 1964 and solidified people’s imaginations on Santa Claus. The grandfatherly man with red robe, rosy cheeks and white beard became the classic image of Santa when red matches Coca-Cola's red shade and deep green background color reminds people of Christmas trees. Since then, red and green became the colors of Christmas. There’s a fun fact that red berries and green leaves can easily catch our eyes because they are complements on the color wheel and always create unexpected wonderful visual effects.