Readers reply: Which old Christmas traditions should be revived?

Which ancient and perhaps long-forgotten Christmas traditions should be revived? Ryan, Kent

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Readers reply

I want to reintroduce wassailing – not so much the carolling, but the idea of going door-to-door with drinks to wish people a good harvest and toast their health. andya2015

I’d like to go back to calling it Yule, like our other northern European country neighbours – it’s a feast to break the back of a dark winter, nothing to do with sunny and warm Judea. whood

A Victorian parlour game, snapdragons: take one shallow tray and fill it with currants and alcohol. Turn the light off and set fire to the alcohol. See who can grab the most. EastMidsBoy

Could we please go back to Father Christmas wearing a green costume? Santa as we currently recognise him is essentially a Formula One driver decked out in his sponsorship colour of red for Coca-Cola. CharlieFarley

Keeping the Christmas decor up until Candlemas, as they did in pre-Victorian times. I take the baubles off on Twelfth Night but keep the tree, “Christmas foliage” and lights up. Winter requires the glow and the green. LenaLamont

Having Dad very carefully remove the gas fire, because otherwise how would Santa ever get down the chimney? Dorkalicious

I can remember more simple pleasures at Christmas before it became a meaningless festival of consumerism and gluttony. Typically our innocent Yuletime pleasures would involve sacrificing an ox and drinking gallons of mead before defenestrating an irritating relative. Suffice to say a good time was had by all … well, almost everybody. UnironicBeard

The tradition of not going online to buy useless crap after tea on Christmas Day and all Boxing Day! OK, it might be marginally more interesting than the inevitable overblown Doctor Who Christmas Special, but it kills any atmosphere stone dead.Guardiangirl66

The original Yule log, which was, in fact, a log. Illustration: Heritage Images/Getty Images

Go back to the Twelve Days of Christmas rather than the Twelve Weeks of Christmas. And ban festive music in shops – especially Wonderful Christmastime. Why didn’t Paul McCartney sing “Simply having a mediocre Christmastime”, which is much more true for most people? I’m sure when people complain about shopping at this time of year, it’s that crap music that is one of the main irritants. PeteTheBeat

I’m worried about Christmas music. It seems that the charts feature Wham!, Mariah Carey and the Pogues every single year now, while the true sound of a British Christmas – Noddy Holder roaring its arrival over a bovver boy glam riff – barely scraped into the Top 30 last year. alexito

The shopworkers’ union in Germany demanded compensation for the psychological stress caused by having to hear Last Christmas by Wham! so many times during the festive season. william

They deserve it! eibhear

For countries with Thanksgiving, skipping the massive sit-down feast and doing a low-key Scandi-style julbord instead. In America, we’ve just done the huge roast dinner with tons of sides. Everyone’s appetite for culinary labour and starchy gluttony is sated. Now we set up a pretty table with all the cheeses, tinned fish, crackers, cookies, nuts, etc. right after presents and spend the day just listening to the kids play, reading our book presents, and enjoying being together. VitaWoolf

We need to get back to the real meaning of Christmas as our pagan ancestors would have celebrated it: Saturnalia, and the festival of the Kalendae, the birthday of the sun (resulting in gift-giving to celebrate surviving the year itself) and kindled lights in token of festivity. And not forgetting the Norse, Egyptian and Celtic cultures playing a role in the origins of Christmas – the tradition of mistletoe, lights and indoor trees at this time of year (as recorded by Roman historian Pliny the Elder in AD1). Sagarmatha1953

Time-travelling ghosts should restart visiting wealth-hoarders and changing them into moral citizens who give their employees enough to eat once a year. Anotherdayonearth

The old northern German tradition of not washing any laundry between Christmas Eve and 6 January, so that the Wild Hunt won’t steal it. AshMordant

I am trying very hard to get my head round the mental image of the Wild Hunt stopping in its course to steal somebody’s washing. Do they actually take garments to wear, or is it more that they ride straight through your washing line and off into the distance with your vests and drawers fluttering behind them like bunting? SpoilheapSurfer

I don’t know – ask the savvy housewife who came up with the idea. The Twelve Nights are called the Rauhnächte in German, literally “rough nights”. It’s supposed that Woden rides with the Wild Hunt during the night, and, as late as the 19th century, people in the northern German countryside were wary of going out after dark in the days around Christmas. Given that doing the laundry for the large number of people who used to live in a farmstead took days and was massive work, it makes sense that the women really didn’t want to be burdened with it at a time when they also needed to do all the cooking and baking for the holidays. AshMordant

Definitely Twelth Night. It could be so much richer in food and tradition than a New Year’s Eve bash. Susan Gamble

Advent calendars with a Christmassy illustration behind each window rather than a miniature bottle of moisturiser or aftershave. And bring back the old fairy lights. Many modern fairy lights have all the warmth of bike lights. BeckyDavidson

I’d like to see the revival of the Blue Peter Advent crown. A thing of beauty requiring little more than a few wire coat hangers, with some double-sided sticky tape and fork handles. EddieChorepost

Four candles? Strangebrew

It can only reach back as far as the 1970s, but my favourite Christmas tradition is reading Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising. It’s a truly wondrous comfort and nothing better suits the time of year. lexicon_mistress

The Krampus tradition in Bavaria and Austria could be taken up in other countries. On 6 December, Saint Nicholas arrives to give gifts to the good children. The day before, Krampus arrives to punish the naughty children. william

I’d like to see revivals of: silly string from a spray can, cocktail biscuits, mercury glass baubles, snow, Frank Sinatra, Cinzano, Corona pop, decent gala pie, Sooty and Sweep, and a remake of Quincy’s Quest. heavyplantcrossing

Krampus, considering what is going on in the world! After a small survey: getting your real tree from the forest. Ask your family and friends what they like best about Christmas and celebrate stress free. Don’t think you are supposed to do this or that. Don’t let one person do the decorating, cooking and clean-up. Finally, not ignoring that not everyone at your work, school, town, country is celebrating Christmas. Be kind and nice, at least once a year, please. LisalaO