In the north they have their Yule log, or Yuletide log, which is a huge log burning in the chimney corner, whilst the Yule cakes are baked on a "girdle," (a kind of frying-pan) over the fire; little lads and maidens assemble nightly at some neighbouring friends to hear the goblin story, and join in "fortune-telling," or some game. There is a part of an old song which runs thus:
"Now all our neighbours' chimneys smoke.
And Christmas logs are burning;
Their ovens they with baked meate choke,
And all their spits are turning."
Among the plants usual to Christmas are the rosemary, the holly, and the mistletoe. Gay says:
"When rosemary and bays, the poet's crown,
Are bawled in frequent cries through all the town,
Then judge the festival of Christmas near—
Christmas, the joyous period of the year.