Advent is celebrated in Churches for four Sundays prior to Christmas Day and an Advent Wreath is commonly used. This comprises seasonal plants, e.g. holly and ivy and usually has four red candles surrounding a central white one. Each Sunday of Advent a candle is lit during the service until on Christmas Day all four red and the central white candle are burning. Advent Calendars are popular with children as they usually contain a piece of chocolate or a picture for each day starting from 1 December and ending on Christmas Day. Part of the fun of Christmas is opening a new flap each day to obtain the small gift underneath.
Mistletoe plants are male or female with tiny yellow-green flowers with four petals.
These open in March in Britain and are wind-pollinated. The soft white berries ripen by the following winter and are attractive to Mistle Thrushes and other birds that spread the seed into crevices in the bark of trees. Here it sprouts and grows into a bush of up to 1 metre with a life span of many years. Druids regarded any Oak tree with Mistletoe growing on it as sacred and ritually cut the Mistletoe with a golden knife. The custom of kissing under the Mistletoe is linked to pagan fertility rites but may also be connected to the ancient custom of hanging Mistletoe over the doorway as a symbol of peace.