In much the same way that we have an unlikely abundance of different regional accents, there’s something about Britain which seems to generate an astonishing density of odd Christmas traditions. Perhaps it’s something to do with picking up and absorbing the (sometimes non-Christian) winter traditions of various different cultures, from the Vikings to the Normans to Lutheran Germans via Prince Albert. In any case, the UK is a veritable melting pot of Christmas oddities. These might be celebratory practices, superstitious rites to ensure a safe and prosperous coming year, or else just delicious and unusual food and drink. Here are a few of our favourites.
Wassailing
Step one: find an orchard. Step two: sing to the apple trees. Step three: enjoy a (literally) fruitful harvest come the late summer. Orchard wassailing has traditionally been associated with the West of England, the spiritual home of cider, and it involves serenading the local fruit-producing trees with ancient songs to recognise their generosity and to ensure they continue to grow the apples that the area has long relied on for its agricultural livelihood. Wassail, the word, has the same root as ‘hail’, as in the act of greeting, and was also the name of a mulled cider or punch which was drunk as part of the wassailing tradition.
If orchards are in short supply where you live, there’s a second way to go wassailing, too: house-visiting wassailing involves knocking on doors on Twelfth Night (the last of the twelve days of Christmas), singing songs and offering a drink from the wassail bowl in return for a gift. Admittedly, turning up and offering a stranger a draught from a dark, pungent bowl of mysterious alcohol on their doorstep might take some by surprise in 2025 – perhaps best to arrange your house-wassail in advance with a friend who also enjoys early medieval Christmas traditions.
Cold water swimming
The annual race held in London’s Serpentine on Christmas Day is the oldest in the world. First contested in 1864, the race takes place over 100 yards and the winner is presented with the Peter Pan Cup, which was presented by author JM Barrie in 1903; Barrie continued to present a cup to the winner every year until 1932. While the race itself is only open to qualifying members of the Serpentine Swimming Club, non-qualifying members also swim in the Serpentine on Christmas morning – or you could just find an open body of cold water in which to take your own festive dip. There’s nothing to shake off a mulled wine hangover quite like a plunge into a three-degree lake, after all. The Outdoor Swimming Society maintains a list of ‘festive swims’ held across the country between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, so you have no excuse.
Figgy pudding
As in, ‘Now bring us some figgy pudding’ from ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’, figgy pudding dates back to the Middle Ages and in many cases was made with curds and fish. Happily, that Victorian titan of the culinary arts Mrs Beeton published her own version which is a lot more appetising, featuring beef suet, raisins, nutmeg, dried figs and more. Importantly, this is not the same food as a Christmas pudding, which is made from plums.
Smoking bishop
The smoking bishop is one of the best-named drinks we’ve ever come across, popular with the Victorians at Christmas and blending warmed port, red wine, cloves and oranges. Mentioned in A Christmas Carol, it’s just one of several 19th-century hot alcoholic drinks to take its name from the church hierarchy – collectively, these were called the ‘ecclesiastics’ – along with the smoking archbishop, the smoking beadle, the smoking cardinal and, perhaps most pleasingly, the smoking pope. These were respectively made with claret, ginger wine, Champagne and burgundy. You can add cinnamon, mace and/or allspice to any of them as you like, as well as sugar, orange peel, lemon or nutmeg: the rules are as loose as you’d expect them to be for a collection of drinks that will give you gout at a mere sniff.
If you don’t fancy a smoking churchman of any sort, other arcane British Christmas drinks include the whipcoll, an egg and brandy drink popular in the Shetland islands and thought to have originated in Scandinavia as the whipkül; the lamb’s wool, consisting of ale with apple purée, most famously drunk by Samuel Pepys; and the egg-hot, a combination of cider, egg yolk and spices from Devon.
Snapdragon
Absolutely not one to try after a smoking bishop or three, snapdragon was a popular Christmas game in early modern England in which fruits such as raisins and plums were floated on a wide dish filled with brandy. The lights were then dimmed, the brandy was then set alight, and the object of the game was to pluck the fruit out of the mix with your bare hands, then eat it while it was still on fire. As to why anyone would risk playing the game, the tradition goes that supposedly whomever plucked out the most raisins would meet their true love within the next year.
If it sounds niche, know that it is mentioned (including as ‘flap-dragon’) in two separate Shakespeare plays, one by John Dryden, and in Dr Johnson’s Dictionary. Perfect for anyone who had third-degree burns on their Christmas list!
