AT this time of the year, many of us will be thinking about the Christmas decorations that will shortly festoon our homes and offices. During this ancient Christian festival, I would imagine that natural green plants will feature prominently, either in the form of a Christmas tree or in the shape of other leafy decorations.

Of those used as Christmas trees, the Norway spruce is the most popular due to its regular conical shape and its ability not to shed its needles as soon as it is installed, while other greenery may include the holly and the ivy, with more such as the yew, mistletoe, privet, laurel or even box.

Every year, this custom leads to criticisms that Christians – and the Christian church in particular – are making use of pagan symbols while celebrating the pagan festival of Yule.

And so we are – but in our own way! When Christianity replaced paganism in many northern countries, it seemed sensible for the then-new Christian faith to adapt many of the existing pagan festivals and customs as a means of easing the people into the new faith.

Thus their Yuletide became our Christmas.

It was logical that some Yuletide customs of the pagans would be adapted to cope with the new celebrations that honoured the birth of Christ. The pagan Romans when in this country had used such their own celebrations at the Saturnalia.

This was a period of sustained merrymaking in winter to honour the god Saturn, although the people of some more northerly countries enjoyed a similarly hectic winter festival to celebrate Yule, their midwinter festival that lasted for 12 days. Thus two major pagan festivals were celebrated with fires in midwinter to bring light to the darkness.

During one of the earliest persecutions of Christians, it appears they were identified by the practice of not decorating their homes with greenery at the Saturnalia and so, to protect themselves from attack, they adopted the pagan custom of using evergreens as household decorations. It was a type of disguise.

One of the first Christian authors to make reference to this was known as Tertullian, his full name being Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullianus, who was born in 160 at Carthage, then in the Roman province of North Africa. He died in 220 and wrote strongly against idolatry. In one of his works, he wrote these words: “Let those who have no light, light their lamps daily; let them over whom Hell fire is imminent, affix to their posts laurels doomed presently to burn; to them the testimonies of darkness and the omens of their penalties are suitable. You are a light of the world, a tree ever green; if you have renounced temples, make not your own gate a temple.”

It seems that the Mediterranean countries did not make use of evergreens as we do at Christmas, this practice being restricted to the northern nations including England with its strong Nordic influences. However, the practice of using evergreens both in church and in our homes was approved by Pope Gregory I when he wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the man who became St Augustine.

In 596, Pope Gregory sent Augustine and 40 monks to England to teach the gospel to the pagan English and when they arrived in Kent, they were welcomed by King Ethelbert, who later became a Christian. However, to appease the pagans of the time, Pope Gregory suggested that Augustine did not forbid the pagans’ practices of using evergreens during their festivals.

He advised Augustine to permit or even encourage the use of a range of popular and harmless customs they had used throughout their lives. And we continue to do so.

One of the Christmas favourites is holly with its dark green but spiky leaves, and its brilliant red berries.

The pagans made use of holly as a coronal, a type of crown worn in honour of the wine god Bacchus, but when the Christian faith replaced paganism in many western nations, the image of the holly was seen to represent Christ’s crown of thorns and his spilt blood. In time, the wording of our hymns began to include references to the holly, often alongside the ivy, the best-known probably being The Holly And The Ivy, which includes references to Mary as the mother of the infant Christ along with the holly’s spikes and red berries.

It is interesting too that King Henry VIII, who established himself as head of the new Church of England, wrote a hymn “to his lady true”

which featured the holly.

The first verse reads: “As the holly growth green, And never changes hue, So am I, ever hath been, To my lady true.”

The manuscript is in the British Museum but it is uncertain to which of his wives this hymn was addressed. IHAVE been reminded of a recipe for a rather special cake which is eaten on Scripture Cake Day, otherwise known as Bible Sunday or the second Sunday of Advent, which this year is December 8.

I last referred to this cake in this column way back in 1985 so most of us will have forgotten all about it.

I seem to recall there are alternative versions, but I saw no reference to it on TV’s Great British Bake-Off!

The cake is unusual because all the ingredients can be found in the scriptures and they combine to produce a very rich fruit cake which Dales folk used to enjoy on picnics and other celebratory occasions indoors and out.

Clearly, the eating of it is not restricted to Bible Sunday.

I do not have the recipe, but the ingredients are: four and a half cups of 1 Kings IV v22 (flour), one cup of Judges V v25 (butter), two cups of Jeremiah VI v20 (sugar), two cups of Nahum III v12 (figs), two cups of 1 Samuel XXX v12 (raisins), two cups of Numbers XVII v8 (almonds), one and a half Judges IV v19 (milk), six of Jeremiah XVII v11 (eggs), two teaspoons of 1 Samuel XIV v25 (honey), two teaspoons of Amos IV v5 (baking powder), a pinch of Leviticus II v13 (salt) and to taste, add two Chronicles IX v9 (spices).

My references do not indicate how the ingredients should be mixed, neither do they provide a baking time.

I am sure expert cake-makers will know what to do.

The rest of us will simply enjoy it.