Short Stuff: Why is holly a holiday thing?

Holly is waxy and super sharp, not exactly the kind of thing you'd want all over your house. Yet it happens every holiday season. Today we dig in to discover why. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Josh Clark?

  Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota Fordability, and it starts with a great deal on an off-road-ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's longest-lasting trucks, combining power for work, tech for adventures, and style in between. And they're built on a reputation for quality and reliability, which is why Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which could mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.

• 0:35Speaker 02

  Granger knows, if you're a procurement manager at an industrial manufacturing facility, you're balancing inventory and budget while sourcing critical supplies across the operation. Too much inventory? Costs climb. Too little? Production slows. Granger's $2 billion in on-hand inventory helps you get what you need, when you need it, so you can help keep budgets balanced and lines moving. Call 1-800-GRANGER, click Granger.com, or just stop by. Granger, for the ones who get it done.

• 1:09Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and it's Ho Ho Short Stuff here on Short Stuff.

• 1:17Speaker 03

  That's right. We're stealing one potential thing from our Christmas episode, just to do a Christmas-style shorty, to get in the spirit of things. And we're going to be talking about holly today. Like, you know, the plant. It's a shrub. It can be a tree. It's in North America. It's in Asia. It's in Europe. There are a lot of different species. And like I said, some can be little shorty shrubs. Some can be big, old trees. But everyone knows holly for those waxy leaves that will draw blood and those little crimson berries that grow on them.

• 1:50Josh Clark?

  Yeah, but there's something about holly that I did not know until I was studying was that they bloom in the spring and early summer. Have you ever seen a holly plant bloom white flowers?

• 2:02Speaker 03

  I don't know. I, I, my dirty secret is I don't love holly just because it's so pointy and sharp. It's, it's almost like a thorn bush, you know?

• 2:11Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I have a big old holly tree outside the house.

• 2:15Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 2:16Josh Clark?

  It was getting a little thin, so I've started to fertilize it twice a year. And it is not fun to get under there and fertilize the holly.

• 2:23Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's, that's no good.

• 2:25Josh Clark?

  But it is pretty and I love all the berries and I love the birds coming to eat the berries. And I love that the birds love that I love the birds coming to eat the berries and so on and so forth. So I do have a special place in my heart for holly.

• 2:36Speaker 03

  Uh, well, we'll go with the most boring part of this all, which is root words. Holly, it's a Christmas thing, obviously, but it didn't come from the word holy, which you may be surprised about. I wasn't. Old English will translate it as holgen.

• 2:52Josh Clark?

  Nice.

• 2:53Speaker 03

  Uh, Old Norse, holfer.

• 2:56Josh Clark?

  Nice.

• 2:57Speaker 03

  Dutch, holst.

• 2:58Josh Clark?

  Nice.

• 2:59Speaker 03

  French, uh, what would that be, Frenchy?

• 3:02Josh Clark?

  Ho?

• 3:02Speaker 03

  Ho?

• 3:03Josh Clark?

  Nice.

• 3:04Speaker 03

  Sound like you're from Philly. Heigie. Uh, and then Welsh is asalein.

• 3:09Josh Clark?

  I don't think that's how you say that, but that's how you spell it. I have no idea. There's only like 10 people who can pronounce Welsh.

• 3:17Speaker 03

  German, I know this one is stekpalma.

• 3:19Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I like that one.

• 3:20Speaker 03

  Uh, but it all probably comes from proto Indo-European languages at the base, which is Q E L, which means prickly or too prick.

• 3:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah, there you go. End of root word segment.

• 3:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, wake up everyone.

• 3:38Josh Clark?

  So, um, one thing I didn't know is apparently in longstanding tradition, because this is, holly is another great example of how you associate with Christmas. Christians have kind of adopted it with their own kind of symbolism associated with it. But it goes back way further than that. And it's kind of from all over the place because holly grows in not just Europe, not Just North America, but Asia as well. It's a really well-traveled, well-trod shrub.

• 4:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 4:06Josh Clark?

  That because it stands out so much in winter, it's usually evergreen, those leaves are unmistakable. The berries are just so bright red against like a snowy background.

• 4:15Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 4:16Josh Clark?

  It does make a lot of sense that cultures from around the world and over the course of time would have been like that. I'm going to drape a bunch of symbolism on that plant.

• 4:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, for sure. I think a lot of times it's associated through like ancient cultures with good luck. In this case, good luck for men specifically because for good luck for women, ivy is that counterpart. And if you've ever heard the English Christmas carol, the holly and the ivy, that's what they're talking about.

• 4:43Josh Clark?

  Oh, okay.

• 4:44Speaker 03

  Yeah. It is, again, a sacred plant from the Druids. A lot of cultures thought it was like good luck to put it in your house. Because it's hardy and strong. And again, those bright red colors, when it's harsh outside, means it's got to be good luck to put it on your house. But it gets even more specific sometimes that like it'll ward off lightning and a lightning storm.

• 5:06Josh Clark?

  Be cool.

• 5:07Speaker 03

  It'll protect your house. If you were in Rome, they would associate it with Saturn. So it obviously came about during their Saturnalia festival a lot.

• 5:17Josh Clark?

  Which has a huge influence on Christmas. That was the Romans mid to late December winter festival.

• 5:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:22Josh Clark?

  So they used holly. And then when the Christians came around, the Romans were like, you're not allowed to use holly for your Christmas celebration, whatever that is.

• 5:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:30Josh Clark?

  It was banned, apparently, at least at first. And then, like you said, the Druids also had their own thing going on too. So this is all happening at different times. I mean, the Romans would have been celebrating Saturnalia while the Druids would have been celebrating their own thing. I don't know that one influenced the other.

• 5:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:47Josh Clark?

  I know that they were connected via Rome at one point in time, but I feel like the Druids' celebration and use of holly in the wintertime was contemporaneous and not influenced by the Romans. I could be wrong, though.

• 5:59Speaker 03

  All right. I bet someone knows.

• 6:01Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I'd love to know.

• 6:02Speaker 03

  You did mention some Christian symbolism. You know, anytime you see anything red, generally in Christianity, that's going to symbolize the blood of Christ from the crucifixion. The legend was that those berries were white, but then Christ's blood stained them red as a reminder. And then the pointed, you know, the pointy points that I hate so much symbolized the crown of thorns during the crucifixion. And in fact, in German, it is known as Christthorn or Christthorn. So that's pretty obvious.

• 6:33Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 6:34Speaker 03

  Should we take a break?

• 6:35Josh Clark?

  Yeah, we should.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  All right, enough of that. Let's talk after the break about the, the plant itself, right after this.

• 6:58Josh Clark?

  Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal on a truck from your local Toyota dealer.

• 7:07Speaker 03

  That's right. Make a smart buy on the off-road ready Tacoma or half-ton Tundra, two of Toyota's most capable and longest lasting trucks, built with the strength for the tough jobs, the tech to power your next big adventure, and the rugged style for everything in between.

• 7:20Josh Clark?

  Or discover Toyota's off-road lineup, including the iconic 4Runner and Land Cruiser, designed to go beyond the everyday. And with Toyota's proven reputation for quality and reliability, plus hybrid power on many models, you can get more for every mile and drive for less along the way.

• 7:36Speaker 03

  That's right. And long after you leave the lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with great resale value. So you could trade in for more when you're ready for your next Toyota. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details, or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.

• 7:58Speaker 04

  First thought is like, wow, how are we going to do all this? Hey, this is Josh and Chuck from Stuff You Should Know.

• 8:04Speaker 03

  That's Alan Goya, planning engineer at AT&T, and he's talking about Intuit Dome, home of the Los Angeles Clippers, where every seat, screen, phone, and transaction is connected with AT&T fiber and 5G, redefining the fan's experience. And Alan's master plan made it all possible.

• 8:20Speaker 04

  It was going to rival anything that was already built. And that takes quite a bit of people and different teams to all be on the same page.

• 8:27Josh Clark?

  That includes field services manager, Drexel Jones. His team made sure it all came together and held up on game day.

• 8:34Speaker 05

  Through what Alan's whole crew designed, we connected the event visitors to the world.

• 8:39Speaker 03

  And after years of hard work and collaboration, it was opening night.

• 8:43Speaker 05

  To actually see the whole stadium light up and data is flowing is a beautiful thing.

• 8:47Speaker 04

  What the fans experience is incredible. It gave me a lot of pride.

• 8:50Josh Clark?

  AT&T, connecting fans to what they love.

• 8:54Speaker 00

  Connecting changes everything. AT&T.

• 9:16Josh Clark?

  Okay, Chuck, you made a lot of big promises about talking about the Holly plant itself before the break. And I feel like we have to deliver on them.

• 9:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, it's generally an evergreen, but not always. It can also be deciduous, which is kind of cool.

• 9:31Josh Clark?

  So weird.

• 9:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:34Josh Clark?

  Oh, is that it?

• 9:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's all I got.

• 9:36Josh Clark?

  Most of them are evergreen, though, like I said, around the world, which is why people are like, I really like that plant in winter time. I guess that they are good in shade. They're good in sunlight. They do like well-drained soil. And they are either a male plant or a female plant, which means they're dioecious.

• 9:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:55Josh Clark?

  Yeah, dioecious. I nailed it. And the male plants and the female plants both flower, which is how they pollinate. But only the female plants are the ones that produce berries.

• 10:07Speaker 03

  That's right. And, you know, they need to be close to one another, obviously, for that production to occur. So the male plant has to be near enough to a female plant.

• 10:15Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 10:16Speaker 03

  That pollination happens, thanks to our little bee friends. And also, as it turns out, well, not cross-pollination, but as far as, you know, spreading that seed, that's thanks mostly to birds, obviously.

• 10:29Josh Clark?

  Well, yeah, the birds like to eat the berries with the four seeds in them and they go poop them out and a new holly plant grows. Have you ever looked down and seen a little holly plant sticking up out of the ground?

• 10:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:41Josh Clark?

  Me too.

• 10:41Speaker 03

  I stomped that thing out.

• 10:43Josh Clark?

  That means that a bird pooped there at some point.

• 10:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'd never thought of it that way, but I can only think of it that way from now on, though.

• 10:50Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I mean, it's true. There's really no other way to look at it.

• 10:54Speaker 03

  You know, who doesn't like to eat those red berries?

• 10:57Josh Clark?

  Who?

• 10:57Speaker 03

  Uh, humans, because it's no good for you. It's toxic to us. I mean, I don't know if it could kill you. You'd probably have to eat a ton of those and you'd probably be vomiting long before you died, such that you would say, hey, maybe don't eat those. But yeah, nausea, bad, bad stomachache. So don't eat those red berries, which is, you know, big for kids because when you see that red berry and you're a kid, it looks like something you should pick off and eat.

• 11:22Josh Clark?

  It does for sure.

• 11:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:24Josh Clark?

  There's an old Druid legend that if you eat a holly berry, it'll upset your stomach.

• 11:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, pretty good.

• 11:31Josh Clark?

  There's also, I had not heard of this, but there's something called bird lime that you can make by boiling the bark of a holly tree specifically. And it makes this sticky substance that you can then take and like paint onto the limbs of say a holly tree or any tree.

• 11:46Speaker 03

  It's crazy.

• 11:47Josh Clark?

  And it's so sticky, it'll trap small birds that alight on those limbs. I guess the only reason you would want to do this is if you want to capture a bird, which you shouldn't be doing anyway. But if you don't get to the bird in time, the bird will starve to death. It's that sticky and holds that fast. So it's illegal actually in some countries. So please don't start making bird lime because you heard about it on this episode.

• 12:10Speaker 03

  No, don't do that. But what you could do, if you're into carving things, apparently the holly's wood is very hard, great for carving, and a lot of chess pieces can be made out of holly, hollywood, because hollywood, which I think is kind of cool because I, my friend, have started playing chess for the first time since probably high school. Because Ruby is in chess club and she's asked me to play chess with her. So we've been playing every night and it's having a ball playing chess with her.

• 12:42Josh Clark?

  Is that why you picked this episode?

• 12:44Speaker 03

  No, that's not why, but it's pretty interesting because I was, I played, I dabbled in chess in high school. I was never good or learned any strategy or technique or took any classes or clubs. So it's all just intuition. And so I'm basically at the point where she is at 10 years old.

• 13:02Josh Clark?

  Neat.

• 13:03Speaker 03

  In her, you know, kind of learning strategy a little bit. And so we're like pretty evenly matched and it's just a lot of fun. Like I'm, it's opening brain pathways that I like strategical pathways that aren't tapped into very much for me. So I'm really digging it. And for Christmas, I already threw Dawn in like a really nice hand carved chess set for us as a little surprise.

• 13:23Josh Clark?

  That's cool. How'd she get into chess?

• 13:26Speaker 03

  Just chess club at school. She signed up for, I have no idea why, probably some boy was in it that she had a crush on, would be my guess.

• 13:32Josh Clark?

  Has she, she's like, this is gonna make a bow tie spin when I join.

• 13:36Speaker 03

  I think so.

• 13:37Josh Clark?

  Has she seen The Queen's Gambit yet?

• 13:40Speaker 03

  No, I don't know how much you get into that yet. I bet, I bet searching for Bobby Fischer could be a good one though for her.

• 13:46Josh Clark?

  Okay. All right. We'll start with that. Make sure she sees The Queen's Gambit at some point.

• 13:51Speaker 03

  All right.

• 13:52Josh Clark?

  One other thing you can do with Hollywood, because it's so dense and sturdy, is to create a walking stick out of it.

• 13:57Speaker 03

  Oh.

• 13:57Josh Clark?

  And if you carve a walking stick out of Hollywood and there's not a druid on the end, throw it away and start over because you did it wrong.

• 14:07Speaker 03

  That sounds great.

• 14:09Josh Clark?

  You got anything else?

• 14:09Speaker 03

  I got nothing else.

• 14:10Josh Clark?

  Oh, everybody then. That means this happy holiday edition of Short Stuff is out.

• 14:18Speaker 06

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.