Need to procure yourselves a big bucket of Northern grit! 💪

Oh dear, sounds like you should probably put a jumper and warm trousers on then...

You can join our sad, slippery club then 😭

5) Common holly leaves are oval, leathery and shiny.

In the young tree and the lower limbs of older trees, the leaves have three to five sharp spines on each side.

Hence why you can see both spiky and rounded leaves on holly plants!

More facts on our blog wmandc.co/holly

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4) The common holly is dioecious (meaning that there are separate male and female plants).

Fruit is only produced on female holly plants.

The male and female plants also produce different types of flowers. Male holly plants have yellowish flowers. Female ones have white / pink flowers.

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3) Early Christians also adopted this custom. Christian mythology states that the holly first sprang up under the footsteps of Jesus. It says that the red berries represented His blood.

In old church calendars Christmas Eve was marked 'templa exornantur' (when churches are decked).

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2) Holly has been used in wintertime decorations since at least ancient Rome.

The Romans sent evergreen boughs and gifts to their friends during the winter festival of Saturnalia.

Pictured: 'Saturnalia' by Antoine-François Callet (1783)

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Painting digitally reproduced with the kind permission of the Cynthia Kenny estate and Wakefield Council Permanent Art Collection (The Hepworth Wakefield).

We're glad you enjoyed them too - aren't we all feeling festive now?!

under a pile of dead birds

Pfft, who wants cute when you can have dead birds?

*coughs up furball*

Victorian Wakefield may just have been full of very literate cats sending such cards to one another

Who knows what's really in those teacups... 👀

Aren't they stunning? And we get to see them every day 😍