The United Kingdom is comprised of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Christmas customs and Christmas traditions in the United Kingdom vary from location to location but the spirit of caring and goodwill extends all over the region at this special time of year.
England
The most popular holiday in England is Christmas, which has Christmas customs and Christmas traditions that go back hundreds of years. The United States practices many of the Christmas customs originating in Britain. In 1840, they mailed the first Christmas card in England, which became a common tradition, with over a billion cards posted annually in the United Kingdom.
Many Christmas decorations have very early origins dating back to the Dark Ages. Some of these decorations are ivy, holly and kissing under the mistletoe, which was an ancient pagan tradition. Each year, Norway, in honor of the memory of Anglo-Norwegian cooperation in the Second World War, donate a huge Christmas tree. This tree stands in Trafalgar Square for everyone to enjoy.
Pantomimes are very popular at Christmas time among children, so they dance and sing to favorite fairy tales while the audience also participates. Carollers go door to door and sing to their neighbors on Christmas Eve. Excited, happy children hang up their Christmas stockings for Father Christmas to fill before bed and wake up to gifts under their Christmas tree.
Many people faithfully go to church services on Christmas day. Families sit down to a traditional Christmas dinner of roast turkey, chicken or
goose with wonderful stuffing and vegetables. Dessert is pudding flaming with brandy, mince pies and Christmas cake. They make the Christmas pudding weeks ahead of time and each member of the family stirs it as they make a wish. Inside the Christmas pudding, many hide lucky charms or coins for the children to find. In 1846, a London baker invented a rolled, brightly colored tube of paper, tied at both ends and called this a Christmas cracker. Two people pull the cracker, which makes a bang, and inside is a party hat and trinkets.
Every year on Christmas afternoon the Queen of England makes her traditional televised Christmas speech to the nation. Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas, got its name from a previous tradition where delivery and trades people received a Christmas box containing either money or food. This custom survives, as people tip their mail carriers, milkman and dustmen at Christmas for great service during the year.
Scotland
At one time in Scotland they celebrated Christmas very quietly because the Presbyterian Church or Church of Scotland placed very little emphasis on this holiday festival. Christmas Day is now a holiday but only since the 1950's. In Scotland, Hogmanay, their bigger celebration took place on New Year's Day. Nowadays their traditions are very similar to American traditions such as putting up and decorating Christmas trees, hanging mistletoe and homes decorated with Christmas lights. Family and friends exchange Christmas gifts and Father Christmas or Santa Claus leaves gifts for all the boys and girls.
Christmas dinner is a big family meal where they usually serve turkey, stuffing and all the trimmings. They call the Christmas pudding that the entire family helps make ahead of time, on a Sunday, "stir-up Sunday." This fantastic tasting Christmas pudding contains raisins, almonds, cinnamon and currants among other ingredients.
Northern Ireland
Christmas season in Northern Ireland traditionally begins December 8 and ends January 6. Choir's sing on sidewalks while street musician play popular Christmas carols. Most people only put a festive wreath up to decorate their home. In December, they light the streets in towns and cities with beautiful Christmas lights, decorations and live trees. Shops and department stores have animated Christmas figures and scenes in their windows for people to enjoy. Santa and his elves arrive at the large malls and department stores.
Family and friends exchange gifts, which they place under their Christmas tree and do not open until Christmas morning. Some families hang Christmas stockings for Santa to fill. Midnight Mass is a very strong family tradition held on Christmas Eve. Santa leaves the children's presents in their room instead of under the Christmas tree. Christmas dinner is usually stuffed turkey or goose, ham, vegetables with Christmas pudding, cake or small mincemeat pies for desert.
Wales
Because the Welsh love music, Christmas carols and singing, accompanied by a harp, are extremely popular Christmas customs and Christmas traditions. They sing in church, around their Christmas trees and at concerts. The Welsh make taffy by boiling butter and brown sugar and this is of the most popular and important Christmas traditions. Along with a meal of Christmas goose, their traditions are very similar to the English ones. On Christmas morning at dawn carolers awake families with their singing.
The ancient Welsh had a few unique and strange Christmas customs and Christmas traditions and New Years customs, some of which are still practiced today.
*Mari Lwyd or Grey Mare was a pre-Christian custom and still acted out by some in Wales even today. Around Christmas, a man accompanied by a frightening horse with a skull head, knocks on a person's door and then challenges them to do battle. The battle he challenges the person to is exchanging rhyming insults. A different version of this is when a person hides under a horsehair blanket and carries a spike with a horse's skull. Accompanied by a group of mummers you must pay a cash fine if bitten by the horses jaw.
*On New Years Day, from dawn until noon, young boys carrying threelegged totems called calennig, would go from home-to-home and splash people with water or chant rhymes and then ask for small gifts of change.
*On Christmas morning, before dawn, men would gather in country churches and sing harmony carols unaccompanied by musical instruments. Called Plygain, some still practice this service, which lasts about three hours.
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