Wassail

[Karen Newcombe <kln@staralliance.com>]

I think I've got a recipe for "Traditional Christmas Wassail" in one of my
ten thousand cookbooks here, possibly the Joy of Cooking?  I believe it is
a variation of either mulled wine or mulled mead, and is what one made to
serve to the "wassailers" when the came to sing at your door.  

Those old pagans probably used mead.  Mmmmm, mead!  Yum yum!

Interesting note about Christmas . . . the sentimental family celebration
we think of as so traditional is of fairly recent origin.  In the late
1800's Christmas was a rather wild time.  In New York the streets would
fill with drunken "wassailers" who got out of hand and made it dangerous to
go out at night.  

There was a conscious attempt at the time by both city government and local
businesses to sweeten these drastic Christmas revels into a more
family-oriented -- and more consumerist -- holiday. This also coincided
with the growth of a more enlightened attitude towards children, who were
coming to be seen less as miniature workers and more as budding people.  

One direct result was our now favorite Christmas poem, The Night Before
Christmas, which was purely designed to promote a nicer holiday -- but with
some of the loveliest occasional poetry an American has come up with.  

Karen  

"As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, 
 When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
 So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
 With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too."
                                           Clement Clark Moore