Ancient Cornish name:
Miz-kavardine, following black month.

---

Jewel for the month: Turquoise. Prosperity.

---

Though now no more the musing ear
Delights to listen to the breeze,
That lingers o'er the green-wood shade,

I love thee, Winter! well.

Sweet are the harmonies of Spring,
Sweet is the Summer's evening gale,
And sweet the autumnal winds that shake

The many-colour'd grove.

And pleasant to the sober'd soul
The silence of the wintry scene,
When Nature shrouds herself, entranced

In deep tranquillity.

Southey.

---

December frost and January flood
Never boded husbandman good.

---

When there are three days cold, expect three days colder.

---

Of Gardens.

I do hold it, in the royal ordering of gardens, there ought to be gardens for all the months in the year, in which, severally, things of beauty may be then in season.

For December and January, and the latter part of November, you must take such things as are green all winter, holly, ivy, bays, juniper, cypress trees, yew, pines, fir trees, rosemary, lavender, periwinkle, the white, the purple, and the blue; germander, flags, orange trees, lemon trees, and myrtles, if they be stoved; and sweet marjoram, warm set.

Bacon.

---

If frost do continue, take this for a law,

The strawberries look to be covered with straw,

Laid overly trim upon crotches and bows,

And after uncovered, as weather allows.

The gilliflower also, the skilful do know,

Doth look to be covered in frost and in snow:

The knot and the border, and rosemary gay,

Do crave the like succour, for dying away.

Tusser.

---

December 5th. (St. Nicholas's Eve.)

St. Nicholas, besides being the patron of children, was supposed to have provided marriage portions for portionless maidens.

Saint Nicholas money used to give to maidens secretlie,

Who, that he still may use his wonted liberalitie,

The mothers all their children on the eve do cause to fast,

And, when they every one at night in senseless sleepe are cast,

Both apples, nuttes, and peares they bring, and other things beside,

As caps, and shooes and petticotes, which secretlie they hide,

And in the morning found, they say, that this Saint Nicholas brought:

Thus tender mindes to worship Saints, and wicked things are taught.

From "The Popish Kingdom," 1750.

Barnaby Googe.

St. Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra, patron saint of virgins, boys, sailors, and the worshipful company of parish clerks of the city of London.

Hone.

---

The drooping year is in the wane,
No longer floats the thistle-down;
The crimson heath is wan and sere;
The sedge hangs withering by the mere,
And the broad fern is rent and brown.
The owl sits huddling by himself,
The cold has pierced his body through;
The patient cattle hang their head;
The deer are 'neath their winter shed;
The ruddy squirrel's in his bed,
And each small thing within its burrow.

Mary Howitt.

---

December 21st. (St. Thomas's Day.)

St. Thomas grey St. Thomas grey,
The longest night and the shortest day.

---

Look at the weathercock on St. Thomas's Day at twelve o'clock, and see which way the wind is, and there it will stick for the next three months.

Warwickshire.

---

There is never a Saturday in the year
But what the sun it doth appear.

---

If birds pipe afore Christmas they'll greet after.

Scotland.

---

Mystic mistletoe flaunted,

Such as the Druids cut down with golden hatchets at Yuletide.

Longfellow.

---

William Stukeley, Arch Druid (1687-1765), says: "The Druids cut mistletoe off the trees with their upright hatchets of brass, called Celts, put upon the ends of their staffs, which they carried in their hands."

---

Mistletoe is said to be the forbidden tree in the middle of the trees of Eden.

---

If Christmas Day on Monday be,
A great winter that year you'll see.

---

What chyld on that day boorn be,
Of gret worscheyp schall he be.

MS. in Bodleian.

---

If that Christmas Day should fall
Upon Friday, know well all
That winter season shall be easy,
Save great winds aloft shall fly.

---

Easter in snow, Christmas in mud;
Christmas in snow, Easter in mud.

Germany.

---

So now is come our joyful feast;
Let every man be jolly;
Each room with ivy leaves is drest
And every post with holly.
Though some churls at our mirth repine,
Round your foreheads garlands twine;
Drown sorrow in a cup of wine,
And let us all be merry.

George Wither.

---

Carol of Queen Anne's Time, 1695.

Thrice welcome Christmas,
Which makes us good cheer,
Mince pies and plum porridge,
Good ale and strong beer,
With pig, goose and capon,
The best that may be,
So well doth the weather
And our stomachs agree.
Observe how the chimneys
Do smoke all about—
The cooks are providing
For dinner, no doubt!

---

Kindle the Christmas brand, and then

Till sunrise let it burn;

Which quenched, then lay it up agen

Till Christmas next return.

Part must be kept, wherewith to tend

The Christmas log next year;

And when 'tis safely kept, the fiend

Can do no mischief there.

Warwickshire.

---

December 26th. (St. Stephen's Day.)

Blessed be St. Stephen,
There's no fast upon his even.

Old saying.

---

Bishop Hall says: "On St. Stephen's Day blessings are implored upon pastures."

---

December 28th. (Innocents' Day, or Childermas Day.)

According to the monks, it was very unlucky to begin any work on Childermas Day, and what soever day that falls on, whether on the Monday, or Tuesday, or any other, nothing must be begun on that day through the year.

Henry Bourne, 1725.

---

Days lengthen a cock's stride each day after Christmas.

---

Know the best season to laugh and to sing,
Is winter, is summer, is autumn, is spring.

Old Song.

---

Hagman Heigh

Old Yorkshire custom for Hag-or Wood-man to go round to ask for money on New Year's Eve.

---

New Year's Eve.

Hark, the cock crows, and yon bright star
Tells us the day himself's not far;
And see where, breaking from the night,
He gilds the western hills with light.
With him old Janus doth appear,
Peeping into the future year,
With such a look as seems to say,
The prospect is not good that way.

Charles Cotton.

---

If New Year's Eve night wind blows south
It betokeneth warmth and growth;
If west, much milk, and fish in the sea;
If north, much cold and storms there will be;
If east, the trees will bear much fruit;
If north-east, flee it man and brute.

---

The New Year, with its yet unacted history,

Claims the homage of our last departing chime;

Then we hush ourselves in awe before the mystery,

Of the youngest and the freshest birth of Time.

---

The good old year is with the past;
Oh, be the new as kind!

Pope.

---