By Catherine Boeckmann
Old Farmers Almanac
Is “The Twelve Days of Christmas!” just a song? Nope! Learn what this festive celebration is all about—and when the 12 days start (and end). It’s a fascinating look at our fun Christmas traditions. Plus, find out how much those 12 gifts would cost today!
What Are the 12 Days of Christmas?
For many Western Christian denominations, the Twelve Days of Christmas, or Christmastide, are a 12-day festive religious season that celebrates the Nativity of Jesus. The 12 days represent the time that it took for the three wise men or kings to travel to Bethlehem to visit baby Jesus and offer him gifts. In certain Eastern Orthodox denominations, it is instead a celebration of the time from Christ’s birth to his baptism.
This festival season is basically a series of religious feast days—as well as a constant stream of entertaining and merrymaking!
The festival season begins on Christmas Day and ends on the evening of January 5 (called Twelfth Night). This marks the end of Christmas festivities and, in ancient Celtic tradition, the end of the 12-day winter solstice celebration.
How the 12 Days Were Celebrated
In medieval and Tudor times, people fasted in the 4 weeks leading up to Christmas Day. So, it’s no surprise that there was so much feasting as soon as Christmas Day arrived!
The 12 days were all about hospitality and merriment after a long year of hard work and harvesting. Most people didn’t work throughout the Twelve Days of Christmas festivities. They wouldn’t even use their spinning wheels.
Remember that this was a dormant time for an agricultural society. They didn’t have office jobs. Might as well make the most of the darkest days of winter and keep each other company!
Here are some of the highlights:
The First Day of Christmas
The 12 days begin on Christmas Day because this is the day that celebrates Jesus’ birth. In ancient times, the day began with Midnight Mass. The church bells rang, candles were lit, and the celebrations kicked off.
Everyone enjoyed a huge feast together on this “first day” of Christmas. The feast traditionally included roasted meats (poultry, venison, boar) and stuffing, followed by mince pies, puddings, and gingerbread.
On a related note, people did not decorate their homes until Christmas Eve. The holly, ivy, mistletoe, tree, and wreath are evergreens, symbolizing the eternal life that Jesus brought with his birth. It was considered bad luck to put them up early.
The greens stayed up for the 12 days from Christmas through Twelfth Night. Then, the decorations would be taken down on Epiphany morning (January 6).
The Second Day of Christmas
Do you know of the Christmas song, “Good King Wenceslas”? It’s about the Feast of St. Stephen, which falls on the 26th of December.
Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the Feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even.
St. Stephen was known for helping the poor. In England, alms (charity) church boxes were opened to share with the needy.
This feast day is still a day for charity in some countries. It’s called Boxing Day in England and Canada. Learn all about Boxing Day and its meaning.
The Third Day of Christmas
The 27th of December is the feast of St. John. This feast day involves a lot of wine. Why? According to legend, St. John drinks a glass of poisoned wine, yet he survives because he blesses the wine before he puts it to his lips.
On this day, the wealthy folks drank their finest wines. And everyone, rich and poor, would toast during the assembled company from the wassail bowl. In Old English, wassail means “Be in good health,” but the term was also applied to the drink — a hot ale with spices, sugar, and apples.
People would pass a large wooden bowl of wassail around. The first person starting the bowl would shout “Wassail!” and drink; the next person would shout, “Drinkhail!” and drink, and so on.
Even today, Catholic churches will have a special blessing of wine after mass, and parishioners will bring a couple of bottles to be blessed. Learn more about the Blessing of Wine.
The Seventh and Eighth Days of Christmas
In medieval days and Tudor times, New Year’s Eve was an occasion for playing sports and games, including fun winter festivals on ice.
New Year’s Day was the more traditional day to give gifts, not Christmas. Often, the gifts were money or fine trinkets. It was common for gifts to be presented to monarchs and for monarchies to give gifts to their subjects.
The Twelfth Day of Christmas: Twelfth Night!
Twelfth Night marked the end of merrymaking before the feast of Epiphany (January 6), when the wise men arrived at the Nativity to pay homage to Jesus.
You may know the term “Twelfth Night” because it’s the title of one of Shakespeare’s plays. Also, many folks may be familiar with the “King Cake,” which was the traditional Twelfth Night cake because it’s a common cake served in New Orleans during Mardi Gras season.
The King Cake traditionally has a coin or dried bean hidden in the cake. This was also a tradition in the ancient times of the Roman Saturnalia. The “king of the feast” was elected by beans. Whoever was given the slice with the prize became the queen and king for the night, and much parading and partying followed.
Twelfth Night was also celebrated with entertainment, games, and a final banquet-style feast. There was often a “masque,” which is a type of play.
The British “panto” or pantomime is echoed in modern-day Christmas festivities; in this silly Christmastime performance, the female lead is played by a man, and a woman plays the male lead.
January 6: Epiphany
Epiphany is also known as Three Kings Day. According to the Gospels of the New Testament, the Magi, the three wise men (or kings), brought gifts to the infant Jesus on this date.
The word epiphany is not specific to Christianity, as Zeus’ alias, Epiphanes, can attest. It comes from the Greek epiphaneia, meaning “manifestation.”
After church, people would enjoy a meal with lamb and serve an Epiphany tart for dessert, a kind of giant jam tart made in the shape of a star. Make yourself a delicious Epiphany Tart!
Epiphany Tart
Courtesy Catholic Cuisine
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 C. powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
9 Tbl. cold stick butter, cut into pieces
1 egg yolk
an assortment of jams
In a food processor, pulse dry ingredients to combine. Add butter and pulse until coarsely cut. Break up the yolk and add in parts, pulsing for 10 seconds after each addition. When the dough clumps, turn dough out onto a work surface. Knead lightly to mix in any unincorporated ingredients. Press into bottom and partially up the sides of a buttered tart pan. Shape the wise men’s star with extra dough by pinching and pressing together. Place in freezer for 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375. Bake tart for 25 minutes. Remove and fill sections with jam. Bake another 10 minutes until jam is set and tart is lightly browned. Cool on rack until ready to serve.
The Christmas decorations were traditionally taken down by Epiphany morning, and the remainder of the edibles were consumed. Christmastime was over until next year!
