Holly in the wild and in the hall
Hollies are the genus Ilex, a large group of trees and shrubs found on most continents. The two most familiar are English holly (Ilex aquifolium) and American holly (Ilex opaca), the state tree of Delaware, both with glossy, spine-edged evergreen leaves. Holly plants are either male or female, and only females bear berries, so a berried shrub needs a male somewhere nearby. The berries ripen in fall and often hang on into winter, feeding birds when little else is left, but they are toxic to people and pets. Evergreen holly was brought indoors for midwinter long before it became a Christmas symbol, and the carol "The Holly and the Ivy" keeps that old pairing alive. Holly is also a traditional December birth flower.
Sprigs, berries and a few surprises
The set centers on classic holly: a sprig with glossy spiky leaves and a cluster of red berries, a three-leaf sprig with bright red berries, a long branching sprig with several berry clusters, a short twig with two leaves and a berry cluster, a twig crowded with a dense cluster of red berries, a sprig with dark green leaves and two berry clusters and a sprig curved into a gentle arc. Two images move away from plain red and green: a holly with golden-yellow berries, and a sprig wearing a light dusting of snow on its leaves and berries. Each sprig is painted on its own, not as part of a wreath or garland, so you can combine several into your own arrangement.
Cards, tags and the whole of December
Holly reads as Christmas at any size, from a full card front to a quarter-inch accent, so it covers the whole run of holiday paper goods. Use it on Christmas cards and envelope seals, gift tags, cookie-exchange invitations, candy and jam labels, holiday party menus, church bulletins and Advent calendars. Classroom teachers can use it on December newsletters and winter concert programs. The snow-dusted sprig and the yellow-berried sprig stretch the season past December 25 into January designs such as winter weddings, New Year's cards and December birthday invitations, where full red-and-green Christmas styling would feel out of date.
Red, deep green and a little gold
The core palette is glossy deep green with bright red berries, with gold from the yellow-berried sprig and white from the snow. The palette panel on this page lists the matching HEX codes and DMC floss numbers for each sprig. For a full holiday set, add poinsettia blooms for larger red shapes, pine cones for warm brown texture and Christmas ornaments for shine. The Christmas hub gathers every holiday set on the site, and the red hub has more berry-colored art.
Corner sprays, ornaments and stitched berries
For a classic card layout, put one sprig in the top-left corner and a mirrored copy in the bottom-right, then leave the middle for the greeting. The two-leaf sprig and the three-leaf sprig are the most compact and work as gift-tag accents at about 1.5 inches. Each file is a 2048 x 2048 px transparent PNG, about 6.8 inches at 300 DPI, enough for a full card front. For sublimation ornaments, center a single sprig on the round blank and leave a margin so the berries don't touch the edge. For embroidery, satin-stitch the leaves and work each berry as a French knot in the red DMC shade listed on this page.