I had my annual 12th Night Party again this year, but, unfortunately, I did not have it on January 5th - the actual 12th Night - for that date fell on a Monday this year of 2026. My gathering was held, instead, five days after, on January 10th, a Saturday, which made it much easier for the celebrators to come. It will not be until 2030 before January 5th falls on a Saturday, so we make do, right?
Though today's post will be documenting our 12th Night celebration for 2026, it is also a 12th Night history lesson, of which I include Wassail history and traditions as well.
Lots of Christmastide & time history here---it's like two posts in one.
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Well...I'm at it again; taking any and every opportunity to wear my period clothing. For many years I've been able to celebrate a Victorian Christmas, and have so very much enjoyed it.
Well, more of late...ever since I dove into 18th century living history over a decade ago, I've also been celebrating a historic 1700s Christmastide.
In fact, back in late December 2018, I had my first colonial Christmas party, for I didn't call it a 12th Night Gathering just yet. But here in 2026 we did celebrate the end of the Christmastide - 12th Night - at the Cady Inn inside the park known as Historic Mill Race Village in Northville, Michigan. The Cady Inn is not an actual 18th century structure, for it was built about 1835, but it does a wonderful job filling in for one---it has the look!
By the way, a few of us did celebrate another colonial Christmas just about a month earlier, taking place in early December at Waterloo Colonial Cabin (HERE) - such a great time!
So, let's take a short history jaunt that I think you'll enjoy:
To begin with...is it called the Christmastide or Christmas time?
Just what is the Christmastide? Is it different from Christmas time?
I took the time to do a bit of research to find out, and what I learned I found to be interesting.
Christmastide vs Christmas time:
The simple explanation for Christmas Time, of which most of us in the US today are very aware, generally begins with Thanksgiving Day in late November, goes through the entire month of December, and generally ends New Year's Day (though many may take it to January 6th - Epiphany).
The Christmastide may be a little less familiar to many here today, for it's the period that actually begins on Christmas Day and goes to January 5th (12th Night), and will also include Epighany (January 6th). It is similar to Christmas time, and their meanings can overlap, but Christmas time is more generally refered to the way most of us here in the US celebrate our modern Christmas season as explained earlier (Thanksgiving to New Years).
However, the Christmastide may sometimes begin on Christmas Eve when many families begin their celebrations, or on Christmas Day (known as the 1st day of Christmas). It ends on 12th night, which is included by most Christian faiths as being a part of the Holiday season as well. Christmastide is then followed on the sunset of the 5th of January by the closely related day of Epiphany the following day (January 6th). Some also call this Epiphany tide. But the Twelve Days of Christmas terminate with Twelfth Night.
Here are your dates to follow:
December 24 - Christmas Eve - the evening before - or more recently, the entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus.
The 1st day of Christmastide: December 25 - Christmas Day
The 2nd day of Christmastide: December 26 - St. Stephen's Day
The 3rd day of Christmastide: December 27 - Feast of St John the Apostle
The 4th day of Christmastide: December 28 - Feast of the Holy Innocents
The 5th day of Christmastide: December 29 - Feast of Saint Thomas Becket
The 6th day of Christmastide: December 30 - sixth day of Christmastide
The 7th day of Christmastide: December 31 - St. Sylvester's Day / New Year's Eve
The 8th day of Christmastide: January 1 - Feast of the Circumcision of Christ / New Year's Day
The 9th day of Christmastide: January 2 - ninth day of Christmastide
The 10th day of Christmastide: January 3 - tenth day of Christmastide
The 11th day of Christmastide: January 4 - eleventh day of Christmastide
The 12th day of Christmastide: January 5 - Twelfth Night
And the 6th of January is Epiphany (Three Kings Day).
The well-known customs of the Christmas season - tide or time - include carol singing, gift giving, decorating, attending Nativity plays, church services, and eating special food such as turkey, ham, pies (pumpkin, apple, mince meat), Christmas cake, and sometimes a 12th Night cake, plus the drinking of wassail and egg nog. Of course, the traditional examples of Christmas greetings include the phrase "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!" "Merry Christmas" has been used since at least 1534. A dated letter from bishop John Fisher to Henry VIII's chief minister Thomas Cromwell reveals as much. The English carol, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," which was introduced in the 1500s, also uses the popular phrase. However, "Happy Christmas" is more common in our modern times, and tends to lean toward England, while "Merry Christmas" seems to be the mainstay phrase here in America.
Only a few of the carols still sung today are specific to the celebration days during Christmastide, those of which occur after Christmas Day, such as Good King Wenceslas and The Wren in the Furze for December 26 - also known as St. Stephen's Day.
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A few Wassailers heading toward the apple orchard, perhaps singing Christmastide carols as they traipse through the snow. (a snippet of Apple Tree Wassail lyrics): Old apple tree we wassail thee And hope that thou shalt bear For the Lord doth know Where we shall be Come apples another year. Hatfuls, capfuls, three-bushel bagfuls, Little heaps under the stairs. Hip hip hip, hooray! Yes, that is myself with friends Amy & Jennifer... |
Then there is Deck the Hall and Gloucestershire Wassail for New Year's celebrations, Apple Tree Wassail, and again Gloucestershire Wassail for 12th Night, and We Three Kings for Epiphany (January 6th). And, of course, there is the most popular Christmastide carol of them all, The 12 Days of Christmas.
Wassailing was actually more popular on 12th Night than any other time during Christmastide. The word Wassail, in fact, meant "good health."
Aside from the Gloucestershire Wassail, they also sang The Apple Wassail, a traditional form of wassailing practiced in the cider orchards of southern England during the winter. On Twelfth Night, just like on New Year's Eve and maybe even Christmas Eve, men would go with their wassail bowl into the orchard and go about the trees. Slices of bread or toast were laid at the roots and sometimes tied to branches. Cider was also poured over the tree roots. The ceremony is said to "bless" the trees to produce a good apple crop in the forthcoming season.
"In the 18th century, wassailing was a lively English tradition evolving from ancient toasts ("be in good health") into festive caroling, during Christmastide, involving singing, visiting homes that may hopefully share a warmed spiced, mulled drink of cider, spiced fruit such as apples and oranges, cinnamon, nutmeg ale, maybe sugar, and possibly wine/whiskey/rum, and promoting community goodwill, alongside continued rituals of toasting apple trees for good harvests, often poured hot into a special wooden wassail bowl.
Wassail and wassailing was so popular that carols still sung today were written about it:
Here We Come A-Wassailing
Gloucestershire Wassail
Apple Tree Wassail
In the picture below I am wassailing at the more upscale 1750s Giddings House:
Wassail Wassail all over the town
our bread it is white and our ale it is brown
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree
with a wassailing bowl we'll drink to thee!
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Come butler, come fill us a bowl of the best And I pray that your soul in heaven may rest But if you do bring us a bowl of the small May the devil take butler, bowl and all. (from The Gloucestershire Wassail) Okay...Anne is definitely not a butler nor a maid---she looks to be the Lady of the House---perhaps a Giddings daughter or Mrs. Giddings herself. But she looks non-too-pleased of my begging. Maybe I should have worn my shoddy clothes to look poorer... or maybe I should not have sung, knowing I do not have an angelic voice (lol) ~Many thanks to Anne for posing with me~ Yes, I have a wassailing bowl~~~ |
Mummers were men that would disguise themselves in garish costumes during special times of the year, especially on Christmas, New Year's Eve, 12th Night, and even sometimes during Hallowe'en, and put on skits, sing carols, and were general merrymaking pranksters. They would gather together with a large wooden bowl and move throughout the village to people’s homes singing songs of good health and happiness to the homeowners as well as to their servants and animals - not unlike our modern caroling. The villagers, in turn, would fill the bowl with the spicy ale of wassail or money or both. Whoever did not give the drink or money, or whoever gave too little, the mummers (also known as wassailers) would wish ill will on them. Or…maybe would push their way into the home where they would find food or drink and take it for themselves of their own free will, their faces hidden from the masks and costumes they were wearing.
I was pleased to get a photo of the Mummers with my wassail bowl:
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| Mummers with my wassail bowl. |
I personally do not enjoy ale or liquor, so I drink my wassail as a warmed spicy fruit drink. It was back in the 1980s when my wife and I were first married that she began to make wassail. Our four children grew up with it as our Christmas drink. This past Christmas, when my eight year old grandson stepped into our house, he said loudly, "I smell wassail!" Yes, the distinctive smell of this old English drink permeates my own home and is firmly entrenched in our Christmas celebrations, and is now considered "the smell of Christmas."
To some it's the smell of the freshly cut Christmas tree.
To others the smell of pumpkin and apple pie.
For us in my family it's the wonderful fragrance of wassail.
That makes me happy.
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| If you look closely, you can see the wassail warming in the pipkin, that odd looking redware item on the right with what looks to be a long snout! This was taken at the hearth inside Waterloo Cabin. |
And they say it correctly - - - it's not wassle...it is wassail.
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| Hot wassail to keep me warm, from the pipkin on the hearth to the cup! |
So, let's see how my 12th Night Gathering went this year at the Cady Inn inside Mill Race Village, shall we?
First off, I selfishly prayed every night the week before that I would not catch one of the viruses that were floating around. I say "selfishly" because I know there were many who were very sick over December 24 & 25th and the New Year's dates and had to miss out on their own celebrations. I've been there-done that in the past, and it is miserable - oh, and I certainly prayed for friends and family, too.
I very much look forward to this colonial 12th Night/Christmastide gathering of friends (and family) and I was taking every precaution possible - I'm sure I wore out God's ears with all of my praying!
It was about ten days before my 12th Night Party, I began to stress. It seems my state of Michigan was in the midst of a major flu and viral outbreak, and it was only getting worse. Coughing, sniffles, puking, fevers...it was happening all over. Then, as I said, the week before the party my stress level went up pretty high: I did not leave my house except to get a carry-out of food one evening, I did not even go to exercise every morning as I normally do, I cancelled my chiropractor appointment, and Friday night date night with my wife was postponed, all due to me not wanting to catch any of the viruses going around.
And I didn't!
And the party went off just as wonderful as I could've hoped, wished, or prayed for!
And the party went off just as wonderful as I could've hoped, wished, or prayed for!
Let's get into a few of the many images taken:
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| A wonderful group of friends came out to celebrate 12th Night. 21 of us, including Peter the fiddler. |
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| Such a fun picture - ladies in men's hats. I liked what Larissa had to say about this: "Look how lady like and well behaved the ladies are on the left, and then there’s us on the right!🤣 I spy ankles!" |
For the past few years, I have tried to give my 12th Night Party a tavern atmosphere. Yes, even though it is held at an inn (Cady Inn). In the 18th century, the main difference between an inn and a tavern was that an inn provided lodging for travelers, while a tavern focused primarily on serving food and drink, often to locals, though some taverns also offered beds. Inns were more comprehensive, serving as rest stops with beds (communal or private) and proper meals, acting as community hubs, while taverns were more like bars or alehouses for drinking and simpler dining, sometimes with entertainment like gambling, with taverns often being more numerous in towns.
Also, on a side note:
when many of the party pictures were posted on Facebook, a commentor inquired:
when many of the party pictures were posted on Facebook, a commentor inquired:
Honest question… did the men back then sit at the dinner table with hats on? To which a participant replied, "This was a tavern event, where food was served and hats would have been worn."
Then he provided paintings created in the 18th century showing the same. It was a wonderful teaching moment and I very much appreciate the question and the answer.
So we definitely treated the Cady Inn as a tavern.
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| Ken and Mark in a deep discussion. |
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The game board you see here I am quite fond of, for a friend of mine, who is a former East Detroit Schools co-worker, made the checkerboard out of an old teacher's desk which was made of oak. Since the desk came out of one of the schools that I attended as a youth, I like to think it may have originally belonged to a former teacher of mine - maybe it was in one of my classrooms. You never know...but the game is well made and it is of heirloom quality. By the way, the first known game of checkers was played in the city-state of Ur in 3000 B.C. It is one of the oldest games still played today. |
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| I'm not quite sure what has captured Tom's attention, but whatever it is Bob is showing sure has made him happy! |
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| Charlotte and I~~~ |
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Jackie & Larissa~~ Shhhh...Larissa's socks don't match! Well, to her, matching socks are just not that important. And, as a colonial farmer, she even has a reasonable explanation: "If I were on a farm and lost a sock or they were past repairing, would I really throw away one because it wasn’t a matching color, after all that work it took to make them? If anyone questions them, I would say I'm telling an important story with my mismatched socks!" |
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| Brian Dewey~a well-respected man about town... |
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| Karen brought chicken and whole cranbberries. |
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| Larry the brewer brought some homemade sweet cider. |
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| Speaking of Larry the brewer, here he is! |
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| My wife Patty and our good friend Kim. Toward the bottom of this photo you can see the wooden wassail bowls...we used the large one in the center with the ladle for our main bowl on this day. |
Toward the beginning of this post, you hopefully read about wassail and its place in history. We had to have wassail for our party, then...
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| Jim fills his cup~~~ "With a wassailing bowl we'll drink to thee~~~" |
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| Jackie had a piece of 12th Night cake (that Jeff prepared) and filled her cup with the delicious wassail. |
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| Good to the last drop! |
Someone commented to me that we should take some wassail out to the apple orchard to celebrate. The trouble is, there are no apple orchards near --within walking distance-- of where we were, or I most certainly would have done that!
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| In line to get the good food! |
And there was plenty of room - - plus there another room should there had been any overflow.
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| Some who have never met, all talking and sharing knowledge with one another. |
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| Here's the rest of us...except for me...I'm the one capturing the moment! |
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"It is the custom of all American taverns, from the highest to the lowest, to have a sort of public table at which the inmates of the house and travellers dine together at a certain hour. It is also frequented by many single gentlemen belonging to the town. Upwards of thirty sat down to dinner, though there were not more than a dozen who resided in the house." An 18th century British visitor to America |
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| The food on our plates was so good. And just in case you were wondering, mac and cheese and sausage links were around during the time of the 13 original American colonies. |
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| My lovely wife and I had just completed our meal. |
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| The three main ladies of the colonial cabin crew. |
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| The dessert table was amazing: pies and cakes (such as the large 12th Night cake!) and various other treats, including cookies. By the way, according to Colonial Williamsburg, before the word “cookie” was popular, what we call "cookies" might be called "cakes." |
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| All the food and desserts were every bit as good as they looked! |
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| Apple pie on the left and 12th Night cake on the right. My wife made the pie and historic baker, Jeff, made the cake. |
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| It was after our meal that we decided to have a tavern sing. |
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| Peter the fiddler joined us once again and added a fine period atmosphere |
The following decidedly non-professional clip shows fun we had:
It was very joyful and fun at the same time:
I think it added greatly to the period and tavern and 12th Night atmosphere.
Madeira wine's history began with its discovery in the 1400s, becoming a vital stop on sea trade routes where its unique flavor developed from heat and oxidation during long voyages, leading to its popularity with American colonists and Founding Fathers like George Washington.
My friend, Knute, captured quite a bit of our time in a ten minute video that he allowed me to post to You Tube:
Oh what fun! |
| Peter is a master violinist and played traditional tunes as well as jigs and reels. |
I also snapped pictures of everyone singing tavern 12th Night - Christmastide carols.
All three songs related to the festive period after Christmas that marked the end of the holiday season. 'Twas a community celebration!
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| We did three bonafide period carols... The Jolly Old Hawk, The Gloucestershire Wassail, and even Deck The Hall, of which many do not realize is actually a drinking song! |
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| Jolly old hawk and his wings were gray... |
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| Wassail, wassail, all over the town our bread it is white and our ale it is brown Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree with a wassailing bowl we'll drink to thee... |
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| Jackie and Larissa wassailing... |
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| See the flowing bowl before us...falalalala, lalalalaaa... (original Deck the Hall lyrics) |
In the 18th century, people drank from wooden bowls for celebratory drinks like punch or wassail primarily for communal spirit, tradition, and practicality, as large, shared bowls fostered fellowship, carried historical/ritualistic meaning (like wassailing for good harvests), and were durable vessels for large batches of spiced, alcoholic beverages before fine glassware was ubiquitous for everyone.
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| I believe this was Jim's turn to shout his line from Jolly Old Hawk. |
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| Theresa and Abby - ~ - ~ - "Hey! It's snowing! Let's go outside!" |
~~Snow Day~~
As I mentioned earlier, this was a fun and joyous day, so when we had a bit of a snow storm, with large puffy flakes falling, we all took the opportunity to get out into the middle of it.
It was like being kids again!
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| The weather was truly amazing! Perfect! |
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| There I am, in my cloak all snow-covered... |
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| Kim and Jeff switched hats! |
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| Knute, our resident red coat! |
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| General Washington had just come from Valley Forge. |
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| Myself and George Washington (Bob Jones). I've been making plans for the 4th of July for this Semiquincentennial (America's 250th) year, so I am speaking to Bob about being George Washington on that day. |
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| My wife joined us for the wintery stroll. |
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| We picked up a few friends on the way back. |
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| I spy Larissa in the blizzard of snow! |
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| Larissa! She took a few of these snowy pictures of us - if I'm in the picture here, Larissa snapped it~~~~ |
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| Abby and Theresa were looking for the blacksmith. |
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| The two young ladies became fast friends last summer. |
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| Yes, Mill Race is a recreated Victorian village, though buildings are all original, but it does a fine job as a stand in for 18th century America. |
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| There are many who do not like the winter weather, but I have to admit that I do. And, yes, I like the snow. In fact, we all enjoyed it quite a bit. It very much added to the ambience. |
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| Patty helped a friend by sewing a cloak. Yep - Patty Poppins has it all! For friends, you do what you gotta do! Debbie seems to be enjoying herself! |
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| Charlotte with Brian, who came in from Waterloo. |
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| Ben Franklin holds a light that uses harnessed lightning. Knute seems quite amazed and uncertain at the concept. Me? I'm totally oblivious. Okay, aside from me being oblivious, this is all made up. |
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| I get around...I was constantly moving about, doing my best as the host to speak and greet everyone. My adrenaline doth flow... |
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| Ken with Washington - Ken goes nowhere without his Madeira! |
And Ken Roberts.
I really do my best to keep modern politics and social issues out of our period reenactments, for we live with that on a daily basis and though everyone may not agree, everyone is well aware. So my thought is let's take a break. I mean, we can go a few hours without discussing current 2026 events. However, there are some who feel the need to bring it up or let their feelings and opinions be known. Well, know what? We - especially me - don't care! Keep that crap in your own home! I will call people out...and kick them out if necessary for such a thing.
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| I captured Charlotte in a moment of respite - she was as busy as a bzzz-bee! Thank you Charlotte for all you did keeping everything in order! |
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| Much of all of our time was spent talking and catching up. |
So at my party I heard only friendly enjoyable conversations, most history and reenacting-oriented.
No muss. No fuss. No stress.
Thank you.
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| When Larissa stepped into the adjacent room where Brian and Jim and I were conversing, she said she felt like she interrupted an important conversation that she wasn’t supposed to hear. She also wrote this on her Facebook page. I responded with, "We may have been discussing the effects that the just printed Common Sense pamphlet might have on the populace." This date - January 10th - was the 250th anniversary of the infamous work. I should have brought my replicated copy! |
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| This was as fine a gathering of folks as I've ever had - - I was as pleased as punch...er...wassail! That's it---I was as pleased as wassail! |
Off behind the Tavern is a stream...
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| Jeff searching for a good spot to paint a picture of my wife and I. The rushing stream and the snow added so much - it felt like winter! |
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| Here is the picture that Jeff captured. Enjoying the celebration of a colonial daytime 12th Night on a cold January Day - the snow's a-falling, the cold creek is a-rushing behind us, but my wife and I are warm within our cloaks. I was also filled with the warmth of a wonderful day. |
As the old saying goes, Christmas is past...12th Night's the last...
or is it?
~~Now...we think 12th Night and Epiphany are the end of Christmas.
For many, that's not always the case:
in my continued research I learned that February 2nd in long ago days was cause for another day of celebration called Candlemas, which was also very religious-based. In a book I have called Observations on Popular Antiquities, Chiefly Illustrating the Origins of our Vulgar Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions by Henry Ellis and John Brand (copywrite 1815), it explicitly shows us this in no uncertain terms.
Candlemas occurs at a period between the December solstice and the March equinox, marking the 40th day after Christmas; many people traditionally noted that time of the year as winter’s “halfway point” while waiting for the spring, and celebrated the annual triumph of light/spring over darkness/winter. It was the day when the blessing of the year’s supply of candles would take place, for candles blessed on this day were among the most powerful talismans (or religious "protectors") available to ordinary folk in the Middle Ages. And in the 18th century, it was a special blessing of the candles day, for Jesus is the Light of the world, which the blessed candles symbolize.
The "true" end of the Christmas season for many~~
Many many thanks to Suemarie and all at Historic Mill Race Village in Northville, Michigan, for their kind allowance for us to have our 12th Night gathering. I very much appreciate all they have done and do for me, including their willingness to host my Patriot's Day event (Battles of Lexington & Concord), as well as the wonderful 4th of July celebrations.
Also, many many thanks must go to the photographers who I've been able to add to my own pictures - Charlotte Bauer, Brian Dewey, Larissa Fleishman, Theresa Suave, and Knute Wales
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| I personally have not made any bayberry candles yet, but I do see this happening in the future. In the meantime...this is as close as I can get at this point. |
As I have written in a previous post, bayberry candles were part of holiday traditions in colonial America, though their use wasn't strictly limited to any one night's celebration. Bayberry candles were burned mostly on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day, but also on 12th Night, and Epiphany. The tradition, originating in New England, involved burning these "luxury candles," made from precious bayberry wax, all the way down to the "socket" mostly on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve to ensure fortune for the year ahead - the candle was lit at dusk and meant to burn down completely to the socket.
So, while the specific "12th Night" focus isn't as prominent in the lore as Christmas/New Year's Eve, bayberry candles were burned during that general holiday period in the 18th century.
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| Brian really enjoys bayberry candles - the scent and the look - so Patty and I surprised him with a pair of them from Helsher House: “These bayberry candles come from a friend so on Christmas Eve & New Years Eve burn it down to the end. For a bayberry candle burned to the socket will bring joy to the heart & gold to the pocket.” Here they are, burning later that evening in his home. |
“It is a far cry back to the time when the bayberry candle was first used. The candle burning at Yuletide in the old English times was very likely to be of bayberry, for it was considered lucky to burn one or more at Christmas… In our own country the use of the bayberry candle is as old as the settlements in Massachusetts and Virginia.”
(Nature Magazine, 1923, p. 52).
Remember what 2026 is all about:
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| It's here! I am so excited about all of the American history coming our way~~~ |
Here's something else I thought you might enjoy:
Click HERE to read about an 18th century New Year's celebration, with more on Wassailing~
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| On my 2025 Christmas Tree I had a few Revolutionary War ornaments: left: Revolutionary War soldier purchased from a shop in Massachusetts bottom left: acually a pin hung on our tree for Hugh Logan, my wife's patriot ancestor center: pottery Betsy Ross Flag from Greenfield Village right: Paul Revere from the Paul Revere House in Boston Ready for the semiquincentennial!! |
Until next time, see you in time.
Click HERE to read about an 18th century New Year's celebration, with more on Wassailing~
Click HERE to read how colonials celebrated Christmas
Click HERE to read about our 250th anniversary of our Battles of Lexington & Concord
Click HERE to read about our 250th anniversary of our Battles of Lexington & Concord
Click HERE to read about our 4th of July celebration in 2025 (you will need to scroll down a ways to see our Mill Race Village celebration)
Wassail!!
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