Happy holidays! As I write, we’re in the days between Christmas and New Year’s; you know, that weird week we all spend in a food coma, time feels upside down, and just about everything seems irrelevant. (That’s not just me, right? Whew, good.) The holiday season is winding down for most people, and while it may promise relief from the hustle and bustle, returning to “life as usual” can also be a bit of a letdown.

Back in 2020, when the New Year blues were looming even larger than usual given the disastrous state of the world, I found myself mildly obsessed with researching historical holiday customs. Prompted by the Lucy Worsley “12 Days of Tudor Christmas” documentary on PBS, I dove eagerly down that rabbit hole – and let me tell you, it was a fantastic, timely boredom buster during those dark pandemic days!

The more I learned since then about the traditions followed in the medieval and Tudor periods, the more I wanted to try some out for myself. (Not all of them, of course; I freely admit that I’ve cherry-picked the parts that would be both enjoyable and accessible for modern participants.) I decided that this was finally the year to try my hand, so we’ve invited a small group of friends to join us in a week for a Twelfth Night party!

Why Twelfth Night?

For any readers who may not be familiar with the festive schedule observed in much of Christian Europe prior to the Reformation, scheduling a Christmas-related celebration once January is in full swing might seem an odd choice, but a 16th-century person wouldn’t bat an eye at the timing. For her, the period leading up to Christmas Day would have looked very, very different than our modern-day frenzy of decorating, shopping, cooking and parties.

Our Tudor friend would have spent the Advent period in sober fasting and contemplation, and not until Christmas Eve would she have brought in the seasonal greenery to decorate her home. She would have enjoyed a much-anticipated feast on Christmas Day, but she wouldn’t exchange gifts with her family and friends until New Year’s Day. She would continue with a variety of observations, both somber and cheerful, until January 5th, the final night of the festivities. Then, Twelfth Night would bring the biggest celebration, with special treats and games to bid farewell to the revelry until the following year. January 6th marked Epiphany, and the next Monday signaled the return to work and the beginning of the new farming year. (Read more about Plough Monday here.)

Twelfth Night in the 21st Century

For our modern-day Twelfth Night party, I am choosing a few documented seasonal historical activities and planning a menu of food and drink to give our guests a flavor of Christmases long past. I am fortunate enough to have a circle of friends who appreciate (or at least kindly humor) my passion for history and even tolerate my spontaneous outbursts of facts and trivia, so I can count on them being at least game to try these weird and wonderful snippets! Between you and me, though, I think they’ll find at least a few tastes, smells and experiences that are surprisingly familiar to us today.

Over the next week, I’ll share a series of posts about the planning and preparation, and then finish off with a post documenting the (hopefully) successful event! Are you doing something similar, or are there Tudor traditions that you incorporate into your holidays? I’d love to hear about them – let me know in the comments!