9. Ivy was the partnership plant of Holly. However, it was the symbol of death, not life.
At Christmas, Holly and Ivy are synonymous with each other. They regularly appeared together in churchwardens accounts for Christmas decorations from the middle ages onwards and in the nineteenth century were immortalized in the favorite carol “The Holly and the Ivy.” However, the meanings of these two Christmas favorites could not be more different. For, although ivy, like holly, was one of the rare plants that grew in winter, and in Christian symbolism stood as the Virgin Mary, the plant also stood for death, rather than life.
In carols older than “The Holly and the Ivy” Ivy was depicted as sad and female while the holly was vibrant and male. ” Holy and hys mery men, they dawnseyn and they syng, Ivy and hur maydyns, they wepen and they wryng, ” lamented an ancient carol recorded in Hone’s 1823 Ancient Mysteries Described. The qualities of life and death and warmth and cold as epitomized by these rhymes seem to suggest holly and ivy together were an ancient epitome of the fight for survival in the midst of the cold and darkness of winter.