Flying Continental for the Holidays

I like to fly the colonial flags of America at my house at different times of year and decided what could be better for Yuletide and Christmas than the red Continental flag with its red, white, and green colors and its bold pine tree in the canton of the flag. Here is some information on this flag and also some photos.

("The Continental Flag or Bunker Hill Flag")

This flag uses a version of the British Red Ensign or Meteor flag with a green New England Pine tree substituted for the Union flag in the canton. With the appearance of the Continental Flag British emblems were entirely eliminated from the Colonial Banner for the first time. In its original form it has a red field and a plain white canton. At the time there was no distinctive symbol available. A pine tree on a white ground was symbolic of many qualities conspicuous in the lives of our New England ancestors. Simple, austere, and bearing withal a stately dignity, it fittingly expressed the ideas and trends of the times. It proclaimed the patriot’s love for his homeland with its pine-clad hills. And so it was that the pine tree emblem came into general use and one was placed in the canton of the Continental Banner. It thus became one of the series of the Pine Tree Flags. It is claimed that the Continental Flag with a red field and the pine tree on the white canton, was one of the banners carried by the American troops, who, on that memorable day of June 17, 1775, fought it out with British Regulars on the grassy slopes of Bunker Hill and three times stopped the British charge.


I would love to see flying the Continental Flag at Christmas become a tradition around the US. If you want to get one look on eBay there are a number of sellers with them in their listings.