The past few weeks have been a lot. Actually, the past year and a half has been a lot, but let’s go with the past few weeks for now. Amidst the ‘a lot’ I’ve had the idea for this particular post, but I kept debating whether or not to actually write it, let alone post it. Because it’s quite personal, which is scary. And I have to be vulnerable, which is scary. And to be completely honest; I don’t really like doing scary things. But still, it’s been on my mind and that means that it’s probably something I should write about, even if it is just to get it out of my head. So, here we go.
There’s an old wives’ tale: put a wrapped baby blanket under the Christmas tree and by the next Christmas, you will have a baby, or at least be pregnant. Every year around this time I see this pop up on my instagram page with lovely videos of people wrapping their baby blankets and lovingly putting it under the tree, all set to a whimsical Christmas song. It’s full of hope and longing.
And it made me curious.
I love the concept of ‘old wives’ tales’ because it brings back images of women being the wisest of people in a village and they had all the right things to do and say to make life a little bit better. Though now it’s usually said pretty dismissively ‘oh, that’s just an old wives’ tale’ indicating that it’s not backed by science and therefore there’s no truth to it. There has to be a reason why it has lived on this long.
And even if it’s all false, it speaks to a time where cures were found in nature, where we looked to nature for warnings, for signs. And sometimes, there actually is some truth to it. I remember being told as a kid that eating carrots was good for my eyesight, now, carrots might not actually improve your eyesight but carrots do contain vitamin A – and what can an extreme lack of vitamin A cause? Blindness. – mic drop –
So back to the baby blanket under the Christmas tree, where did this come from? Every time I try to search for the source of this specific tale I kept coming back to articles that simply said ‘christmas trend on tiktok’ or just videos of people putting Christmas blankets under the tree. But nothing that actually spoke about where it might have come from.
I did find some information about baby blankets under the tree which tied to more to Christianity. However these blankets wouldn’t be wrapped and they don’t represent wanting to have a baby by next Christmas. They were more to commemorate the nativity scene where Mary wraps baby Jesus in a blanket. It can be done to invite peace and blessings into the home, or good fortune for children. From what I could find this is usually done with the first baby blanket that the family had already used.
Though also an endearing ritual, not exactly the one I was looking for.
I didn’t find a specific origin for this ‘old wives’ tale’ – I did find how several things might have come together to form it.
Christmas takes many of its traditions from the pagan festival of Yule (which we will also get into in a later post) and Yule is all about hope, renewal, it’s the promise of life after darkness. Pagans would bring in an Evergreen (the Christmas tree’s ancestor) to represent the continuity of nature. Offerings would be made to this tree, symbols were hung from the branches and evergreens were believed to protect the home and ward off evil. Nowadays we bring in a Christmas tree (or Yule Tree) and decorate it to go with a specific colour scheme of theme.
Gift giving was also a Yule tradition, because Yule was a feast for unity, sharing. Those with plenty would give to the less fortune so that all could celebrate. People would also gift the gods, spirits and ancestors with symbolic items to ask for blessings and good fortune for when the sun returned.
If we put this together, a time of year where we celebrate hope, renewal, where we mark the promise of light and life returning. A tree to symbolize the continuity of nature which people would decorate with symbols and where they would leave offerings to ask for blessings. It’s not that hard to make the leap to putting something under the Christmas tree to represent something you would really like to have in life. Especially if that something, is a new life.
True or not, whether it’s actually from an ancient tradition or just something TikTok came up with and decided to brand as an ‘old wives’ tale’ for clicks, what happens it that is resonates with people. People find hope in it, people take on the ritual and make it their own. And if you think about it, that might be how all old wives’ tales started back in the day.
Last year I saw this ‘old wives’ tale’ pass round and I thought ‘that’s cute’. I liked the idea of people doing this kind of ritual. At that point I didn’t understand the full range of emotion that goes on behind those videos. After all last year it had only been a few months, yes, it broke my heart every month but I hadn’t hit my breaking point yet.
That came a few months later. Along with hospitals visits, and tests, and mostly a lot of crying. It’s been a lot these past few weeks… and months. And it’s nice to do something that is just full of hope.
This year, we bought a baby blanket, wrapped it with all the love in the world, and put it under the Christmas tree. Old wives’ tale, endearing ritual, offering to the old gods, whichever it is, I hope all the wrapped baby blankets that are under the tree this year, get to be wrapped around a very wanted and already very loved baby in 2025.
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