Christmas is full of tradition. Since the time it was first celebrated, and in many different parts of the world, traditions have been established, some to exist for a time and then die out, others that still go on to this day. I want to have a look at some of these traditions, their origins and how they developed.

In pre-Christian times, there was a midwinter custom of bringing evergreen branches into the home at midwinter. It served as a reminder to the people that winter would not last forever, that spring would return. For example, the Scandinavian holiday of Yule embraced this tradition. The earliest record of actual Christmas trees, however, were in sixteenth century Europe. Trees would initially be placed in town squares, decorated with fruit and nuts, and in some places, eventually set on fire. Eventually they were brought inside, decorated again with fruit, nuts, and sweets. The first written record of candles being placed on a tree was in 1611, in Silesia. In time this central European tradition made its way to Britain, and to America. I was curious about the tradition of putting a star or an angel on top of the tree. Apparently the first recorded ‘tree-topper’ was the Christ child, but it was the star (representing the Star of Bethlehem) or the angel (representing the angel messengers) that became the standard tree toppers. I could find no origin dates for this, however. As an aside the decoration of houses with evergreen boughs is considered to be the precursor for decorations with garlands and tinsel.

Speaking of Yule, Iceland has the story of the Yule lads, thirteen ‘jolasveinar’ (a kind of troll) who had very odd names like ‘doorway sniffer’ and ‘spoon licker’ Children would put out their shoes in bedroom windows for the Yule lads to put in presents – the good children would receive presents, but the bad children would receive rotten potatoes. (If you’ve ever smelled rotten potatoes you know how brutal this is, because they stink!) Icelandic folklore adds to this the Yule cat (Jolakotturinn) which is a giant cat that prowls around at Christmas, and eats people who have not received new clothes! Apparently this was a warning to people to work hard in order to have new clothes for Christmas. (Seems a little harsh to me.)  There is also the Yule log. It was more like a small tree that would be cut down and hauled into the hall in medieval times. It had to be large because the ritual was to keep it burning throughout the Christmas season. At the end of that time a small remaining piece would be kept, and this is what would be used to light the Yule log next year.

The tradition of hanging stockings is tied up with the story of St Nicholas, who eventually morphed into Father Christmas. St Nicholas lived in the fourth century, and hanging stockings for Christmas came much later, so this story is unlikely to be historical. A man had three daughters and was very poor. As no man would marry the girls unless they came with a dowry, the man believed he would need to sell his daughters into slavery (again, this seems a little extreme, and I am not sure how this was going to benefit anyone except the man himself). Anyway, St Nicholas heard about this and decided to help. He went to the man’s house and threw a purse of gold threw the window, where it landed in one of the girls’ stockings that was hanging by the fire. This meant one of the daughters had a dowry and could be married. He repeated this for the other two girls and so all three of them were able to be married. This sounds like a story made up to explain the stocking tradition rather than a tradition coming from the story. The actual tradition seems to have started in Europe around the eighteenth century. Children would use normal socks or stockings until much later when special Christmas stockings began to be sold.

The Mari Lwyd is a Welsh tradition (the name means ‘grey mare’) where a horse skull would be carried by one person with the rest of him covered in a sheet, and a group of singers would take this around the village or town, singing at each door and begging entry. A nineteenth century tradition in South Wales, as well as regular carols there would be an improvised song where the group asks to come into a house and the home owner is to improvise an answering song as to why they should not. Depending on the skill of the singers this could potentially go on for some time, though the Mari Lwyd usually won as entering the house was considered to bring good luck. The group would be given food and drink. The tradition became rare when Methodism in Wales meant that the drunkenness and rowdiness associated with the tradition was frowned upon, and the dying out of the Welsh language meant less people were able to participate properly. However, in recent years there has been a resurgence of this custom.

Kissing under the mistletoe appears to have come from England in the Georgian period, around the 1720s. There were old pre-Christian stories about the mystical properties of mistletoe including the Norse story ‘The Death of Baldur’. Thei idea is the mistletoe is hung up somewhere, and a couple can kiss underneath it. You have to remove one of the berries for each kiss, and when all the berries are gone, there can be no further kissing. It was said to be bad luck to refuse a kiss, but when used these days it’s mostly just for fun.

In medieval Europe the twelve days of Christmas were celebrated as a twelve day long holiday, with different traditions and celebrations happening each day. In medieval and Tudor England they fasted in the lead up to Christmas day, and on Christmas eve they would bring in the evergreens to decorate their homes. Christmas Day began with midnight mass.  Later there would be a feast. (How much of a feast would depend on how much money you had). The second day of Christmas was the feast of St Stephen or Boxing day as we now call it. This was a day of charity – alms would be distributed to the poor.

The third day of Christmas was the feast of ST John. This was a day for drinking, apparently. People would share the wassail bowl of ale of cider warmed with sugar and spices. It would be passed around and everyone would take a sip.

The fourth day of Christmsa was the feast of the Holy Innocents. On this day the people would pay at role reversal – the children would be in charge. Even in the churches child bishops would be created and would deliver sermons (one assumes written for them by the adult churchmen.)

The fifth day of Christmas was the feast of St Thomas Becket. The sixth day was the feast of St Egwin of Worcester.

The seventh day of Christmas was the feast of St Silvester, also New Years Eve, often called Watchnight. People were expected to reflect on the old year and pray for the New Year. It was called Hogmanay in Scotland and would be a day of games and sports.

The eighth day of Christmas was New Years Day, and also the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. In Tudor times gifts would be given on this day rather than Christmas Day.

The ninth day of Christmas was the feast of St Basil the Great. The tenth day was sometimes the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus in some areas. (People had different traditions and even within Europe they were not all on the same calender back then.)

The Twelfth day of Christmas was the games and plays. Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” refers to this custom. It was a day for wassailing, the precursor to carolling. Just as with the Mari Lwyd, groups of people would go from house to house singing, and the tradition would involve giving them food and drink. There are traditional wassail songs that have survived, such as ‘Here we come a-wassailing’ and ‘We Wish you a Merry Christmas’, which refers to figgy pudding and the singers’ refusal to leave until they have ‘got some’. Wassailing was also conducted in orchards, where they would sing to the trees to promote a good crop of apples and pears.

The final feast of Christmas was the feast of the Epiphany on 6 January. A meal of lamb would usually be had after the church services. Christmas officially ended at this point.

While the entire twelve days are no longer holidays, parts of these traditions are still observed. Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year’s Day are still holidays in many parts of the world. Twelfth Night parties are still conducted in some areas, and wassailing is still a thing.

You will see Father Christmas conspicuous by his absence. Honestly I think the story of St Nicholas, his transformation into Father Christmas, and all the other permutations of Christmas related spirits (including Krampus) probably needs its own article. Maybe next year. Meanwhile I would like to say Merry Christmas to all my readers, and a happy New Year.

Bibliography

whychristmas,com

yha.com.au

en.wikipedia.org

food52.com

brittanica.com

english-heritage.org.uk

museum.wales

nationaltrust.org.uk