Wassail Information and Recipe

The Yuletide drink known as wassail draws its name from the Anglo-Saxon toast of “To your health!” in which the company wished each other a prosperous year.

The tradition of wassailing falls into two distinct traditions; house-visiting wassailling and the orchard-visiting wassailing.

Orchard-Visiting wassailing refers to an ancient tradition that involves visiting orchards,singing and drinking the health of trees in the hopes that they might better thrive. The purpose of wassailing is to awaken the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the Autumn.

House-Visiting wassail is caroling by another name. It is the traditional practice of people going door-to-door bringing joy to others by singing seasonal carols.

Wassail the beverage is a hot, mulled punch often associated with Yuletide. Historically, the drink was a mulled cider made with sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg and topped with slices of toast. Apples or oranges are often added to the mix.

Hence the first stanza of the traditional carol the Gloucestershire Wassail dating back to the middle ages:

“Wassail! Wassail! All over the town, our toast it is white and our ale it is brown; our bowl it is made of the white maple tree; with the wassailing bowl, we’ll drink to thee.”

The above lyric speaks of a wassailing bowl made from white maple. White maple is a completely flavourless wood, commonly used even today to make some kitchen utensils, and likely was what many simple peasant wassail bowls were made from.

Wassail bowls are generally in the shape of goblets and some examples from the 17th century are very elaborate, decorated with silver and so large that they must have been passed around as a “loving cup” so that many could drink from it.

Here’s a none alcoholic recipe for the whole family to enjoy.

Wassail:

• ½ gallon apple juice
• ½ gallon cranberry juice
• 1 quart pineapple juice
• 2 cups orange juice
• 2 tsp. whole cloves
• 2 tsp. whole allspice
• ¼ tsp. whole nutmeg
• 3 cinnamon sticks

Pour into a large percolator. Place spices in percolator basket. Perk through a complete cycle. Serve hot. If a percolator is not available, simmer in a Crockpot or pan 30/40 minutes.

Twirling Snowflakes

At Yule one of the craft activities I love to do with my children is making twirling snowflakes to decorate with.

You will need:

• Paper or card, metallic works well (card does last longer but is harder to cut especially for small hands)
• Scissors
• Glitter glue
• Sellotape
• String (I used wool I usually have loads of it around and can buy it ethically)

1. Paint the glitter onto the paper and leave to dry.
2. Fold the paper in half then in half again.
3. Cut diagonally across from the short folded side till the long folded side but do NOT cut all the way through.
4. Cut from the point of the short folded side corner to the opposite point of the long folded side and remove the excess paper.
5. Unfold the paper. You will see arrow cuts going out from the centre to the left and right.
6. starting in the centre take the first two cuts, pull them forward into a point and tape them together.
7. Turn the paper over, lift the next two cuts and tape them together.
8. Repeat till all the cuts are folded and taped together.
9. Cut a length of string and tape to centre fold of the twirling snowflake
10. Hang the Snowflake. I taped them to the ceiling.
11. Watch them sparkle and glitter whilst they twirl.