Bustard.
—The bustard, says Timbs (Something for Everybody, 1861, p. 148), has almost disappeared; but within memory it might be seen in the Christmas larders of large inns.
Christmas Candles.
—Those were candles of an uncommon size, and the name has descended to the small candles which children light up at this season. Hampson (Med. Ævi Kalend. vol. i. p. 109), alluding to the custom, says, in some places candles are made of a particular kind, because the candle that is lighted on Christmas Day must be so large as to burn from the time of its ignition to the close of the day, otherwise it will portend evil to the family for the ensuing year. The poor were wont to present the rich with wax tapers, and yule candles are still in the north of Scotland given by merchants to their customers. At one time children at the village schools in Lancashire were required to bring each a mould candle before the parting or separation for the Christmas holidays.
Christmas Carols.
—The Christmas carol (said to be derived from cantare to sing, and rola, an interjection of joy) is of very ancient date. Bishop Taylor observes that the ‘Gloria in Excelsis,’ the well-known hymn sung by the angels to the shepherds at our Lord’s Nativity, was the earliest Christmas carol. In the early ages of the Church bishops were accustomed to sing these sacred canticles among their clergy. The oldest printed collections in England are those of Wynkyn de Worde, 1521, and of Kele soon after. Warton, in his History of English Poetry, notices a licence granted in 1562 to John Tysdale for printing “Certayne goodly carowles to be songe to the glory of God;” and again, “Crestenmas carowles auctorisshed by my lord of London.” See N. & Q. 4th S. vol. x. p. 485. In the sixteenth century the popularity of carol-singing occasioned the publication of a duodecimo volume, published in 1642, entitled, “Psalmes or Songs of Sion, turned into the language, and set to the tunes of a strange land. By W(illiam) S(layter), intended for Christmas carols, and fitted to divers of the most noted and common but solemne tunes, everywhere in this land familiarly used and knowne.”—See Athenæum, December 20th, 1856; Sandy’s Christmas Carols, 1833.
Decorations.
—Tradition, says Phillips in his Sylva Florifera (1823, vol. i. p. 281), asserts that the first Christian church in Britain was built of boughs, and that this plan was adopted as more likely to attract the notice of the people because the heathens built their temples in that manner, probably to imitate the temples of Saturn which were always under the oak. The great feast of Saturn was held in December, and as the oaks of this country were then without leaves, the priests obliged the people to bring in boughs and sprigs of evergreens; and Christians, on the 20th of the same month, did likewise, from whence originated the present custom of placing holly and other evergreens in our churches and houses to show the arrival of the feast of Christmas. The name of holly is a corruption of the word holy, as Dr. Turner, our earliest writer on plants, calls it Holy and Holy tree. It has a great variety of names in Germany, amongst which is Christdorn; in Danish it is also called Christorn; and in Swedish Christtorn, amongst other appellations.
A correspondent of Book of Days, speaking of this custom (vol. ii., p. 753), says the decking of churches, houses, and shops with evergreens at Christmas springs from a period far anterior to the revelation of Christianity, and seems proximately to be derived from the custom prevalent during the Saturnalia of the inhabitants of Rome, ornamenting their temples and dwellings with green boughs.
The favourite plants for church decoration at Christmas are holly, bay, rosemary, and laurel. Ivy is rather objectionable, from its associations, having anciently been sacred to Bacchus. Cypress seems inappropriate from its funereal relations. One plant, in special, is excluded—the mistletoe. Ibid. p. 753.