One of the most lovely gifts around this holiday season is the gift of plants. So whether you need gifts for others, or for yourself, here’s our list of best Christmas plants for gifts and decorations.

Amaryllis

A favorite plant to gift, the stately Amaryllis adds vibrant beauty to any indoor decor or office desk.

The ancient Greek legend of Amaryllis, began as a shy and timid nymph and unrequited love that ended in the beauty of the strong and vibrant flowering plant.^[1]https://www.teleflora.com/meaning-of-flowers/amaryllis

So if you enjoy plant symbolism, a gift of Amaryllis, represents courage, persistence, determination and radiant beauty.

Amaryllis gift kits are readily available on Amazon and at your favorite home stores, and they don’t need to already be in flower to make for a lovely Holiday plant gift. In fact, part of the joy in growing Amaryllis is watching it transform from a homely bulb to a tall stem with buds that open into large gorgeous blossoms!

For much more on this lovely plant and how to care for Amaryllis here.

Christmas Cactus

Named for their proclivity to bloom around the holidays, the Christmas cactus tradition hails from their native Brazil.

Legend has it that a local boy prayed for a sign of Christmas in the jungle heat. When he came out of his hut, the cacti in the jungle all around him were suddenly in bloom.

While the cacti with the white or red flowers are the most popular for Christmas plants for gifts, these wonderful little specimens also come with cream, pink, gold, orange, red, scarlet, white, and bi-colored blossoms.

These succulent cacti are easy to care for. Simply Provide your Christmas cactus with gentle natural light, (east or north facing windows are ideal), a well-draining soil such as cactus soil, and you’re halfway there. Water once or twice weekly, and your Christmas succulent should grow happily along.

Christmas cacti, known botanically as Schlumgera bridgesti, are amongst the most popular Christmas plants for gifts. They make great plant gifts because of their lovely display of blossoms and relative ease of care and growth.

They’re very forgiving and in fact, these plants can even survive a certain amount of neglect, (speaking from experience)! However, keeping your cactus healthy will help to insure that it blossoms for the holidays, for many years to come.

Now that you have our recommendations for the best Christmas plants for gifts and decorations, the only hard part is deciding which one/s to choose! But don’t worry, you can’t go wrong with any of these showstopper Christmas choices for a brighter and more festive holiday season.

One of the most lovely gifts around this holiday season is the gift of plants. So whether you need gifts for others, or for yourself and your own home, here’s our list of best Christmas plants for gifts and decorations.

White Chrysanthemum

A beautiful addition to any Christmas plants for gifts list, is the white chrysanthemum.

Christmas symbology of the white Chrysanthemum is thought to have originated in homes in Germany. The story tells of a beggar man, who was welcomed in from the cold to stay with a peasant family. He was said to have thrown off his begarly robes to reveal that he was Christ, and after his visit, two white Chrysanthemums appeared.

We chose white Chrysanthemums for the purity of their beauty and the joy and optimism they symbolize.

See also: white flower meanings and symbolism.

Chrysanthemum Care

Chrysanthemums need full sun and a good well-draining soil to thrive. Pinching back new growth can help it widen and because the bushy mum that you love to see during the season.

Cyclamen

Native to the Middle East, this wonderfully festive plant can be in a wide range of colors. They prefer good natural light, but without direct sunlight and away from heating sources.

You’ll need to deadhead the flowers to keep healthy. With care, these make for some awe-inspiring plant gifts or to use throughout the home as part of your holiday celebration décor.

Representing the holy Mother, cyclamen are said to look like Mary accepting the immaculate conception as the blooms are bent and facing the ground as if their heads are praying.

We chose cyclamen for its deep Christian ties to the holiday and for its beauty.

English Ivy

Outdoors, Hedera helix, or English ivy, is a prolifically spreading evergreen vine with lovely heart shaped variegated and solid green leaves.

These are popular Christmas plants for gifts, because of their traditional use in holiday decorations. it’s another time-honored traditional plant that makes for vibrant Christmas decor.

English Ivy was used in pagan festivals to ward off evil intent and spirits. Today, they may be used to symbolize eternal life because evergreen, and fidelity because of the heart shaped leaves.

English Ivy grows well in a medium bright light, and good draining soil, and at temperatures between 50-70F. They are a woody vine that can get out of control without proper training and cutbacks.

As a key player of Christmas plants for decoration, you can use this in wreaths or to add greenery to mantles and table décor. There are many cultivar choices that will give you different leaf color options.

Ivy berries are poisonous to humans so enjoy the leaves but save the berries for the birds.

Holly

What list of Christmas plants would be complete without holly? It is one of the single most traditional plants for the season.

Holiday use of holly began with the Roman festival Saturnalia, but then became a Christian symbol for the crown of thorns. The red holly berries became the symbol of the blood shed of Christ.

Now, we bring in holly boughs for mantles and other décor ideas, while the berries are placed in wreaths and as Christmas tree decorations.

Holly is a fast growing evergreen perennial, that can get up to 60 feet tall or more if not contained.

Lenten Rose – Hellebore

Lenten Rose is a common name for the Hellebore niger plant. Traditional lore states that the Hellebore grew from a young Jewish girl’s tears of sadness that she had no gifts for the baby Jesus. Her tears became the Lenten Rose and is now a Christmas flowering plant.

Hellebore is a beautiful flowering plant, semi-evergreen, and perennial so it will keep year after year.

We chose the Lenten Rose for the popular use of placing cut blooms to float in a shallow water dish as an attractively fresh and festive centerpiece for Christmas dinners and events.

Mistletoe

Best Christmas plants for gifts and decorations needs to include the traditional Christmas plant, mistletoe.

Whether you’re hanging it from an archway or using it on gifts, it is a traditional holiday plant originating from various ancient mythologies.

Mistletoe Traditional Mythology

The mistletoe tradition is carried over from various cultural traditions and expressions, beginning in ancient Greece with kissing during Saturnian celebrations in December.

In ancient Rome, homes and temples were decorated with mistletoe in reverence to the gods. For Romans, mistletoe also represented reconciliation of differences and even peace in war, reminiscent of Christmas day ceasefires during wartimes.

The Norse had their goddess tragedy story, and in Victorian England superstition had many a maiden afraid to refuse a mistletoe kiss.^[2]https://www.livescience.com/32901-why-we-kiss-under-mistletoe.html

Today, mistletoe is a fun tradition taken lightly, (and maybe for the occasional romantic opportunistic kiss), but it always adds a lovely touch to any Christmas decor.

Where to Find Mistletoe

You can find mistletoe on around 100 species of deciduous trees. Some of the most common trees for mistletoe include:

• apple trees
• black gum
• hickory
• maple, red
• oak
• pecan
• poplar

REFERENCE: NCSU.edu^[3]https://chatham.ces.ncsu.edu/2014/12/does-mistletoe-harm-trees-2/

Mistletoe, is a woody climber plant with no roots in the ground. Instead, this hemiparasite grows on trees, where it obtains water and nutrients. However, it is a slow grower that also photosynthesizes its own food, thereby rarely damaging its host tree.

The Viscum album, spreads by seeds, mostly through birds who eat the berries, and you can see it in trees after autumn leaf fall as this evergreen retains it’s green leaves. Look for it in host trees, or purchase mistletoe from florists and possibly your local nurseries.

Mistletoe will last a few weeks in a cool place indoors. Alternately, if you can’t find it fresh, you can get a mistletoe ornament from Amazon.

Poinsettia

Mexican folktales speak of an impoverished girl, Pepita, who picked wildflowers for she had no other gift for the baby Jesus. But upon laying the weeds at his feet, the flowers were transformed into poinsettias. They are said to be links to the Star of Bethlehem.^[4]https://wenkegardencenter.com/know-legend-poinsettia/

Today these bright flowers are a traditional Christmas Plants for Gifts and provide weeks — and even months — of holiday cheer.

We chose this as a Christmas plant choice for its link to the nativity, its richly elegant beauty, and the traditional use of poinsettias as a part of the Christmas decor.

Rosemary

This herb made our list because it has been part of the holidays since before poinsettias. It is said to have been one of the manger plants in the times of baby Jesus. Lore had it that if you smelled the rosemary herb on Christmas Eve, you would be happy and healthy the whole year.

Today, rosemary adorns wreaths and swags, as well as the Christmas tables and bouquets. It is even used as flavor seasoning in the traditional holiday dinner. Rosemary is a drought tolerant perennial evergreen with a fresh fragrance and blue-green spikey leaves reminiscent of pines.

Rosemary will always be a wonderful Christmas plant to have as decoration or to give as a meaningful tradition. We love it for the many health benefits of rosemary to enjoy through use in food and tea.