Medieval ways of celebrating Christmas - or perhaps not

Medievalists.com has a seasonal article about various ways of celebrating Christmas from the Middle Ages. If you are wondering how to do something a bit different this year you might find some ideas in the article which can be read at Seven Medieval Christmas Traditions

Some of these ways of such as quantities of food and drink, are notable more for their scale rather than for being fundamentally different in principle to those of the modern world.

Folk customs including men dressed up as playful dancing animals do survive in some places or have perhaps,or probably, mutated into pantomime animals.

Boy Bishops I have posted about previously in Boy Bishops, although I had not before heard of them conducting ‘marriages’. Perhaps this was something that occurred on the continent but not in England. This might have been a way of legitimising what in modern times might be represented by having a ‘one night stand’ after the office party, and maybe regretting the ensuing embarrassment for the next year or two …

Others such as the free-for-all football from France looks in essence to be the same as the tradition of the Epiphany Haxey Hood in this country which I wrote about, with some links, in Lincolnshire - the Haxey Hood, Plough Jaggers and Hobby Horses and in Britain's most chaotic traditions

Other things, such as the occasional assassination or tangling with trolls ( lurking under bridges or on the Internet), is definitely not recommended.