The British Academy

Mistletoe has long been a symbol of love, peace and goodwill.

Mistletoe is an aerial parasite that has no roots of its own and lives off the tree that it attaches itself to. Without that tree it would die.

Two hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Druids used mistletoe to celebrate the coming of winter.

Even the warring clans would stop their battles and claim a temporary truce when they would chance upon mistletoe.

They believed the plant had special healing powers for everything from female infertility to poison ingestion.