Yorkshire.
There is in Yorkshire a custom, which has been by the country people more or less revived, ever since the alteration in the style and calendar, namely, of watching, on the midnight of the new and old Christmas Eve, by beehives, to determine upon the right Christmas from the humming noise which they suppose the bees will make when the birth of our Saviour took place.—Gent. Mag. 1811, vol. lxxxi. part. i. p. 424.
Christmas Eve in Yorkshire, says a writer in Time’s Telescope (1822, p. 298), is celebrated in a peculiar manner at eight o’clock in the evening the bells greet “Old Father Christmas” with a merry peal, the children parade the streets with drums, trumpets, bells, or perhaps, in their absence, with the poker and shovel, taken from their humble cottage fire; the yule candle is lighted, and—
“High on the cheerful fire
Is blazing seen th’ enormous Christmas brand.”
Supper is served, of which one dish, from the lordly mansion to the humblest shed, is invariably furmety; yule cake, one of which is always made for each individual in the family, and other more substantial viands are also added.
At St. Cuthbert’s Church, Ackworth, a sheaf of corn was at one time suspended on Christmas Eve outside the porch, for the especial benefit of the birds.—N. & Q. 3rd S. vol. ii. p. 505; see N. & Q. 3rd S. vol. iii. p. 117.
At Dewsbury, one of the church bells is tolled as at a funeral; this is called the Devil’s Knell, the moral of which is that “the Devil died when Christ was born.” This custom was discontinued for many years, but revived by the vicar in 1828.—Timbs’ Something for Everybody, 1861, p. 150.
At Ripon, on Christmas Eve, the grocers send each of their customers a pound or half of currants and raisins to make a Christmas pudding. The chandlers also send large mould candles, and the coopers logs of wood, generally called yule clogs, which are always used on Christmas Eve; but should it be so large as not to be all burnt that night, which is frequently the case, the remains are kept till old Christmas Eve.—Gent. Mag. 1790, vol. lx. p. 719.
Cole in his Historical Sketches of Scalby, Burniston, and Cloughton (1829, p. 45) says the village choristers belonging to Scalby assemble on Christmas Eve, and remain out the whole night singing at the principal houses.