: Christmas

Christmas Eve

In many parts of Wales, Christmas meant rising early (or staying up overnight) to attend the plygain service at the parish church. The hour for the plygain appears to have varied between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., the latter becoming more common as time went on. To await the service, young people, in particular, would pass away the time in one way or another.

In some country districts they would gather at certain farmhouses to make cyflaith (treacle toffee) and spend the night merrily, decorating the houses with holly and mistletoe, as at Marford, Flintshire, in the 1830's. According to Mrs. Thrale's journal of a tour in 1774 the inhabitants of Dyffryn Clwyd kindled their lights at two in the morning and sang and danced to the harp until the plygain.

Llanrhaeadr Party singing Plygain carols

In other districts, especially country towns, the time was spent playing in the streets. In Tenby, Pembrokeshire, for example, crowds carried torches, shouted verses and blew cow-horns, before finally forming a torch procession in which the young men of the town escorted the rector from his house to the church. A similar procession is recorded in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, and also in Llanfyllin, Montgomeryshire, where candles were used instead of torches.

Plygain candles

In the countryside the plygain at the parish church was attended by people from even the remotest farmsteads. Often each person brought his or her candle to help to light the church since, until the nineteenth century, regular services were rarely held at night-time and no provision for lighting was usually made. The brilliant illumination from the candles of the attenders was an important feature of the festival. In Llanfyllin, special candles known as canhwyllau plygain were made by local chandlers in the middle of the 19th century.

During the service the church was decorated inside with chandeliers holding coloured candles and, in Dolgellau, for example, decked with holly. In Maentwrog, Merioneth, candles were also fixed in sockets on the tops of standards or posts fastened to pews here and there in the building. In Lanfyllin the edifice was lighted with some hundreds of candles, placed a few inches; apart from each other, around the walls inside which made the building look very brilliant. In Maentwrog it was the carollers singing in the little gallery at the bell tower end of the church who brought their own candles for it was too dark in that part of the building to follow the service in the Common Prayer Book.

While no doubt the custom varied in detail from parish to parish, the brilliant illumination of the church appears to have made a lasting impression on the memories of those who have left us descriptions, and to have been a striking characteristic of the traditional plygain. As Gwynfryn Richards has suggested, the spiritual significance of candle-lighting at Christmas as a symbol of the coming of the Light of the World, may be discerned in these practices.

The Plygain Service

The plygain itself was an abbreviated form of morning service interspersed with and followed by carols sung by soloists and parties. William Payne described the plygain in Dolgellau as he knew it in the middle of the last century in the following words:

'Now the church is in a blaze, now crammed, body, aisles, gallery, now Shon Robert, the club-footed shoemaker, and his wife, descending from the singing seat to the lower and front part of the gallery, strike up alternately, and without artificial aid of pitch pipe, the long, long carol and old favourite describing the Worship of Kings and of the Wise Men, and the Flight into Egypt, and the terrible wickedness of Herod. The crowds are wholly silent and rapt in admiration. Then the good Rector, and his curate, David Pugh, stand up, and read the Morning Service abbreviated, finishing with the prayer for All Conditions of Men, and the benediction restless and somewhat surging is the congregation during prayers the Rector obliged sometimes to stop short in his office and look direct at some part or persons, but no verbal admonishment. Prayers over, the singers begin again more carols, new singers, old carols in solos, duets, trios, choruses, then silence in the audience, broken at appropriate pauses by the suppressed hum, of delight and approval, till between eight and nine, hunger telling on the singers, the Plygain is over and the Bells strike out a round peal.'

In Maentwrog a sermon was included in the plygain service, but the rector was careful to keep both sermon and service short, as he evidently felt that the chief attraction was not the service but the carolling that followed it. In other places, such as Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, holy communion was administered during the plygain.

A Pre-Reformation Survival

Seen against its historical background the plygain is a survival of a pre-Reformation Christmas service modified to suit the new Protestant conditions. Richards points out that plygain in the sixteenth century denoted an ordinary morning service and only at a later date came to be restricted to the service held on Christmas morning. The plygain, he suggests, took the place of the midnight Christmas mass of the Catholic period and was originally associated with a communion service held later on Christmas morning.

The practice of holding the communion service at eight o'clock ended the earlier association between the plygain (morning service) at six, seven or eight o'clock, and the High Mass at nine or ten o'clock. After the Reformation, carol-singing in the vernacular, which had hitherto been excluded from the Latin service of the church at Christmas, was incorporated in the early morning Christmas service, and, as nineteenth-century descriptions plainly show, had become the main attraction of the plygain. John Fisher has drawn attention to the similarity between the Manx festival of Oiel Verrey, held at midnight on Christmas Eve, and the Welsh plygain. He points out that both became popular carol-singing festivals soon after the translation of the Bible into the respective vernacular tongues.

Far from disappearing under the impact of Nonconformity in the nineteenth century, the plygain was one of the few traditional church festivals not discarded by Welsh Nonconformist chapels, although the character of the service was sometimes changed by making it a variation of the ordinary week-night prayer-meeting. As a general custom, the early-morning Christmas plygain ceased towards the end of the last century, although in some cases it survived to a later date.

Plygain Supper at Cefn Llwyn Farmhouse, Llangynyw

The Carol-Singing Tradition in North Wales

In the past, all parts of North Wales shared a strong carol-singing tradition. Nowadays, however, this tradition survives at its most intense in the east midlands, in the predominantly Welsh-speaking areas bounded by Mallwyd, Llanerfyl, Cefnyblodwel (within England) and Llangynog.

For the stranger, attending a plygain service is an unusual experience. For almost two hours, the service is completely in the hands of the carol singers. No programme has been prepared beforehand and no-one acts as announcer, but, each in turn, the carol parties walk forward quietly and leisurely forward to sing. On average there will be eight to fourteen parties present and one is likely to hear between twenty and thirty Christmas carols during the service - all in Welsh and all different, since it is a point of honour not to offer a carol already heard that evening

Celebrate this Christmas by exploring recipes that have brought generations of families and communities together. Our curated selection will fill your season with the warmth of tradition, one recipe at a time.

The Goose

Group with geese at a farm on Stalling Down, near Cowbridge

Goose has been the festive bird associated with Christmas in Wales over the centuries. Since the late medieval times the yeoman farmer had a goose on his Christmas table. Geese were easily bred and readily fed, especially in the early autumn when they were allowed to glean the fields after the corn harvest. Many farmers would give one as a gift to tenants and workmen to celebrate Michaelmas Day but a fair number would be reserved and fattened for the Christmas Market.

Christmas Turkey in Wales?

Turkey was not part of the Christmas fare in the rural areas until the second half of the twentieth century.

In general, the turkey was not accepted as part of the Christmas fare in the rural areas until the second half of this century.

Goose Blood Tart

In mid-Wales, it was the custom to make goose blood tart when the farmers were killing a large number of geese at Christmastime.

Oral evidence testifies that this cake was an essential part of the Christmas fare in the Trefeglwys district and similarly in the districts of Staylittle, Llanbrynmair and Llangurig in Montgomeryshire. To date, however, there is no evidence to show that it was prepared in any other county in Wales.

Gooseblood tart, a Christmas delicacy in parts of Montgomeryshire

The blood of about three geese would be put in a greased basin and boiled in a saucepan half full of water. Then the blood would be allowed to cool and set solid before it was rubbed between the fingers to make fine crumbs. Mixed with currants, flour, suet, salt , spice and golden syrup, it would be baked between two layers of crust on a plate in the oven.

A strange mixture of ingredients, you may think, but not unlike the mincemeat in mince pies, which originally included real meat as an ingredient!

Plum Pudding

Plum pudding, well fruited and spiced, has been associated with Christmas since the early 18th century.

It would be boiled in one large lump in a linen pudding cloth, a custom that gave it the names lump pudding, rag pudding or bag pudding. The mixture was then bunched together and tied securely with strong cord to form a bag. The bag was then suspended from a stick placed across the top of the cauldron or boiler and immersed in boiling water. It was served with a sweet butter sauce.

Mixing the Christmas pudding involved the whole family when each member, from the youngest to the oldest, would take his turn to stir the pudding and in doing so would cast a secret wish. It was a common custom also when preparing the pudding to put small coins in the mixture - the old silver threepenny or sixpenny pieces, and the lucky recipients on Christmas day regarded them as tokens of good luck.

Toffee Evenings

Adding icing sugar to prevent toffee sticking together

Noson Gyflaith (Toffee Evening) was a traditional part of Christmas or New Year festivities in some areas of north Wales earlier this century. Families, in their turn, would invite friends to their homes for supper, usually in the form of a Christmas dinner, and it would be followed by merriment, playing games, making toffee, and story telling.

When the required ingredients had boiled to a certain degree, the toffee was poured onto a well-greased slate or stone slab. The hearth-stone itself was used for this purpose in some houses. Members of the happy gathering would then cover their hands with butter and attempt to "pull" the toffee while it was still quite warm. It was a skilled art to "pull" and twist the toffee until it became golden yellow in colour. Both the skilled and unskilled would take part - the one being a source of envy, the other a source of banter.

Toffee-making was also practised in parts of south Wales, especially in the coal-mining areas.

As far as we know, it was not associated here with a particular festive occasion, but housewives were known to sell it from their homes or on local market stalls. It was known by various names such as taffi, dant, or "fanny" or indeed it could be known by the name of the person who made it, e.g. losin Magws, or losin Ansin bach. Children would buy it - a six inch strip or two ounces for a penny.

Loaf Cake

Loaf cake, the rich yeast fruit cake baked for Christmas in the counties of south Wales

Loaf cake was synonymous with Christmas celebrations in the industrial valleys of south Wales. The dough, prepared in large quantities, would be carried to the local bakehouse where the baker would be responsible for baking the cakes for a penny or two per loaf.

Neighbours were invited to taste each other's cake, and tradition has it (in the district of Margam near Port Talbot) that if a young maid was given the opportunity to taste thirteen different cakes in one season, she would marry before the following Christmas.

Christmas card from the collection