I’m listening to a compendium of Tudor Christmas carols as I write this, which is not nearly as stuffy as it sounds: many of the carols that were popular in Tudor times (1485–1603) are still well-known, such as “In the Bleak Midwinter”, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel!”, “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night”, and “The Coventry Carol”. I’m conscious that when it comes to “well known” your mileage may vary, and the titles might not ring a bell, but you’d probably know them to hear them.
It’s fitting listening, as I want to talk about a delightful Christmas show that should be on everyone’s watch list at this time of year: Lucy Worsley’s 12 Days of Tudor Christmas. Worsley is a British historian, curator, and author who is joint curator at Historic Royal Palaces, which manages some of the UK’s unoccupied royal palaces (including the Tower of London and Hampton Court Palace), but she is probably best-known as a TV presenter who specializes in programs dealing with historical matters.
12 Days of Tudor Christmas (2019) is centred around the Christmas period of 1525, and Worsley — with the help of others who are knowledgeable about everything from Tudor food and drink, music, and entertainment to the life of Henry VIII, who was king in 1525 — shows us what the Christmas season looked like 500 years ago, and the similarities (and differences) to what we know today. Not only is Worsley a knowledgeable and engaging presenter; everyone who appears is similarly well-informed, and clearly having a blast.
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there,” wrote L.P Hartley, and the show makes clear that a lot of things that played a huge part in Christmas celebrations five centuries ago have fallen by the wayside. Christmas Day was not even the focus of the season, but was the starting point for the 12 days leading up to the main event on Jan. 6. It was a time when everyone could, for a brief period, step outside the routine of everyday life and enjoy feasting and merriment without fear of censure; not terribly unlike Christmas today, when you think about it.
Many of the things that play a central part of Christmas today — decorated trees, Christmas cards, Santa Claus — didn’t exist in 1525, and some traditions from that time have disappeared altogether. Some, however, remain, albeit in slightly different form. Tudor folk decorated their homes with greenery — evergreen boughs, holly, even herbs like rosemary and thyme — which is a direct predecessor of today’s wreaths and garlands. Christmas music was popular, including the pieces I mention above, although Worsley delves into the backstory of the haunting “Coventry Carol” to discover its poignant origins and meaning.
She is also full of interesting facts, such as the origin and meaning of the word “dole”, which described the Christmas Day leftover food that was given to poor folk the next day. The word still exists in that sense in the British phrase “on the dole”, used to describe someone on welfare. A traditional Christmas entertainment in Tudor times was “mumming”, in which groups of costumed and disguised people (mummers) went door-to-door and were invited in, where they would play games to entertain (and sometimes trick) the householder, and receive food and drink. Worsley notes that some historians believe the tradition moved from Christmas to Halloween (and also gave us the phrase “mum’s the word”, as mummers had to stay silent).
All this, and I haven’t even mentioned that Worsley plays the role of Henry VIII receiving Christmas gifts (and shows us what the king received in 1525), tries (and fails) to eat a roasted boar’s head, takes part in a Tudor dance, makes sugar candies, and much more. Give yourself a lovely holiday treat this year, and seek out 12 Days of Tudor Christmas. It’s a box of delights from start to finish.