Kissing Under the Mistletoe Is A Norse Tradition

Much like Santa himself, reindeer, Xmas trees, wreaths, and more, kissing under the mistletoe is yet another Xmas tradition that predates christianity. Therefore, I highly advocate it at Xmastime.

Baldr, the Norse god of light, beauty, love, and happiness, was the second son of Odin. He often had prophetic dreams, including one where he dreamt his own death. His mother, Frygg, made every object on earth vow not to hurt Baldr. However, mistletoe never took the vow, as Frygg thought it was too unthreatening to hurt Baldr. So of course, the gods had a new pasttime: throwing things at Baldr since nothing can harm him. Naturally, Loki, the asshole of the gods, made a spear of mistletoe and went to the chuck-things-at-Baldr party. He gave the mistletoe spear to Baldr's blind brother, Hodur, who threw it at Baldr and killed him.

Then a bunch of fire happened, but that's not important here.

Frygg pleaded to the goddess of the underworld, Hel, to let Baldr return to earth. Hel agreed on the condition that all objects alive and dead wept for him. And everything did, except for the giantess Þökk (actually Loki in disguise). So of course the gods hunted Loki down, tied him to three rocks, and put a serpent above his face to drip venom onto him.

Anyway, Frygg was so happy that Baldr was revived, that she commanded anyone standing under mistletoe to kiss as a reminder of how love conquered death.

So there you have it.