I would like to start today’s blog post by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. I can’t believe how quickly Christmas has come around this year – time truly flies. I hope everyone reading this has a day filled with peace, happiness, and love.
Similar to today, a typical Tudor Christmas would include spending time with loved ones, general merriment, and, of course, feasting. For the Tudors, Christmas was an elaborate affair filled with religious devotion, grand celebrations, and festive traditions that spanned twelve days. During this time, the working class had twelve full days off to spend with their families, while the nobility observed the season with acts of hospitality and extravagant events at court.
For us, Christmas is often an extended season that begins shortly after Halloween – or, if you’re like me, the second a leaf touches the ground. For the Tudors, however, Christmas celebrations were firmly contained within those twelve days, and it is those days which I will explore today.
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25th December: The first day of Christmas
Christmas day began with midnight Mass, which everyone was expected to attend wearing their finest clothes.
After another church service in the morning, the Tudors would have broke their fast with a lavish feast. Nobility dined on spiced meats, with a boar’s head often taking centre stage, alongside mince pies and plum puddings. Other meats for the nobility included turkey and pork. For the less fortunate, goose was regarded as a special treat.
26th December: The second day of Christmas
While we now celebrate Boxing Day, the Tudors observed St. Stephen’s Day, dedicated to the Saint known for aiding the less fortunate. Alms boxes in churches were opened and the contents distributed to the poor. The day was further marked with entertainment such as pantomimes.
28th December: The fourth day of Christmas
The fourth day was the Feast of Holy Innocents, commemorating the children murdered by King Herod in Bethlehem. A grim tradition saw children whipped by their parents in the morning to remind them of this suffering. However, the day turned joyful as the children were humorously put “in charge” of their parents for the remainder of the day.
31st December: The seventh day of Christmas
New Year’s Eve today is often spent with loved ones, staying up until midnight to welcome the new year. For my family, it is a day of relaxation and quality time together – a sentiment not unlike that of the Tudors. On the seventh day of Christmas, Tudor families would gather to enjoy games and sports. Some of their pastimes would still be familiar to us today, with one example being hide-and-seek.
1st January: The eighth day of Christmas
The first day of a new year feels like a fresh start for many. For the Tudors, however, the official new year did not begin until the 25th of March. That said, New Year’s Day was still celebrated as a time for exchanging gifts, a tradition reserved for this day as opposed to Christmas Day.
Gift-giving was a lavish affair, particularly at court, where everyone was expected to present a gift to the monarch. Next week, I will explore this tradition further, but some noteworthy gifts received by Henry VIII included boar spears, a gold cup, and – most significantly – an accepted marriage proposal. Anne Boleyn was gifted items such as matching hangings for her bedchamber and jewels.
5th/6th January: The twelfth day of Christmas
The culmination of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night, was a highly anticipated and extravagant celebration. It would have began on the evening of the 5th of January and continued into the 6th. Twelfth Night festivities included grand feasts, performances, and masques at court.
The main tradition of Twelfth Night was the Twelfth Night cake – a fruitcake with a hidden coin or dried bean baked within the mixture. Men would take slices from one half of the cake, and women from the other, until a man and a woman found the coin or bean. These lucky individuals were crowned the King or Queen of the Bean and were responsible for leading the evening’s entertainment.
The Feast of Epiphany, marking the official end of Christmas, mirrored the start of the season. The day began with a church service, followed by a final feast featuring roasted lamb and Epiphany tart.
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Christmas during the Tudor era was characterised by feasts, acts of charity, and abundant merriment. It would undoubtedly have been a joyful time, steeped in tradition and festivity. Personally, I would love to have experienced a Tudor Christmas, though I’m not sure I would have taken a liking to the food. Imagine, however, the smells of spiced cider, spiced meats, roasted apples, as well as the beautiful greenery adorning the walls.
Let’s not forget the snow – a hallmark of Tudor winters. It was not uncommon for the Thames to freeze, allowing for markets to be set up on the ice. A Tudor Christmas must have been a truly enchanting experience, one I can only dream of witnessing.
