Colour me Tartan - Christmas Red

I love red and have just ordered myself a red velvet suit from Boden to wear at Christmas. I just hope it fits as it looks fabulous on the model and I then have an excuse to wear a pretty bold bit of colour. Stewart Royal is the most famous red tartan and remains the best seller for us, despite the multitude of other shades on offer. At this time of year a red tartan just feels so festive and it will be on my table on Christmas day, co-ordinating beautiful with sprigs of holly and my combination of snow scene and tartan Christmas crackers (thanks M&S!) ordered months ago when I realised we were hosting all the in-laws.

Father Christmas wears a red suit and hat (although it is rumoured that it was actually green before Coco-Cola ran their famous Christmas campaign), and holly berries are said to represent the blood of Jesus when he died on the cross. For me Christmas is not Christmas without giving or receiving gifts of red poinsettias and this year we even have one in the office. Sarah thought we weren't feeling festive enough! If you are giving a poinsettia or any other plant at Christmas have you read our blog post on how to wrap your plant beautifully using tartan fabric. Makes a simple gift look very special.

We have unearthed a few surprising facts about red as we looked at this colour more closely and here are our 5 favourites:

1. Red is associated with winning and is often regarded as intimidating, which is why Tiger Woods favours it on the final day of a golf tournament, and we are advised not to wear red to an interview

2. Research by Andrew Elliot of the University of Rochester showed that women find men dressed in red more attractive and perceive them to be more powerful and successful. Time for a red tartan suit then boys!

3. Red also means beautiful in Russian.

4. The colour red doesn’t really make bulls angry as they are colour-blind.

5. Only 2% of people in the USA have red hair, compared to 10% in Scotland

Red, the colour of blood, passion, courage. Very Scottish traits and perhaps this is why so many tartans contain red, or maybe there were just plenty of red berries around to dye the yarn. Whatever the reason there is no better time to explore our range of red tartans and tell us which one you love best.