CHRISTMAS often generates a desire to romanticise about the past. We need only look at Christmas cards to be prompted by vivid images of former times such as street scenes with beautiful deep snow, horse-drawn stagecoaches and charming inns, pretty cottages with bow windows and roaring log fires, candles, crackers and carol singers, stockings full of gifts hanging on bedposts or beside the fireplaces, mammoth feasts on beautifully decorated tables, Father Christmas and reindeer, warmly clad skaters on frozen lakes - or even holy scenes such as the famous crib in the stable at Bethlehem or baby Jesus with his parents.

Among these bygone images, even among many of us living today, are memories of wassailers or other youngsters (not carol singers) who came to one's door on Christmas morning.

From my own recollection, such youngsters tended to arrive far too early, especially as we had been to midnight mass and were subsequently rather late to bed with a natural desire to have a relaxing lie-in on this rather special morning of the year. I suppose the noisy arrival of these visitors was one means of getting the family out of bed on a chilly Christmas morning even if it contributed little towards the traditional goodwill to all mankind.

So why did these visitors knock on our doors rather too early on Christmas morning?

It seems to have been the custom in times past for wassailers to tour the houses, in some areas only on Christmas morning but in others during the entire Twelve Days of Christmas or even throughout the whole four weeks of Advent.

In the early days, parties of wassailers would carry a large ornate bowl decorated with streamers, ribbons or Christmas evergreens, and this contained a powerful hot drink curiously known as lambs' wool. It comprised heated ale, or perhaps some other alcoholic drink like wine or gin, and this was laced with spices, sugar, eggs and cream. Roasted apples floated in the drink and in some cases, portions of French bread were also included. The bowl was usually accompanied by a ladle which would accommodate half a pint.

The size and nature of the bowl varied - many were of wood or earthenware, but Jesus college at Oxford has a wonderful silver wassail bowl, large enough to contain ten gallons. If genuine wassail cups, as they are known, are now collectors' items, then a few might still be found in lofts and outbuildings, although in time their name changed - they became wrongly known as vessel cups.

Quite obviously, the precise rituals governing the arrival of wassailers at one's house did vary throughout the country. In very formal times, there was a captain of wassail who was in charge of the bowl as well as the proceedings, and upon being welcomed at a house he would first offer a drink to the master of the house, then the mistress, the children and finally any guests.

This was poured into the householder's own glasses and was done in the expectation of some gift in return, usually in the form of Christmas fare.

As time went by, however, these formalities were abandoned and the wassail bowl became much less ornate, usually appearing in the form of a baking bowl or even a tin bucket. Whereas it had been the custom to fill the bowl with a seasonal drink, the last century witnessed empty wassail bowls, these being carried so that householders could place their gifts in them.

In return, they were treated only to a rapidly chanted verse. This varied from place to place, but one version was:

I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year,

A pocket full of money and a cellar full of beer,

Two fat pigs and a newly calved cow,

Good master and mistress, how do you do -

So please will you give me a Christmas box?

I suppose this was an older form of the modern trick or treat. In some areas of the North, an empty bowl, or sometimes a box, contained two tiny figures.

It became known as a Milly box and the carriers expected a gift if they presented themselves at one's door. The figures were originally Our Lady and the infant Christ, with the original name being Our Lady box, later My Lady box, and then M'Lady or Milly box.

Milly boxes were used in the northern part of the North York moors well within living memory and at times were confused with wassailing.

Although wassailing takes place at other times of the year, especially in the apple orchards either at new year or on Twelfth Night, it did become a Christmas custom.

In recent times, the practice changed until the visitors became known as shouters. They carried nothing but would arrive at one's door and shout: "I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year, so please will you give me a Christmas box?"

And then there were the waits, groups of singers and musicians who performed outside one's house at Christmas. But wassailers, waits, shouters and Milly box bringers all merged into one group of youngsters seeking gifts for very little in return, but even they have now ceased their practices.

In some ways, it's a rather sad, but at least we can have a lie-in on Christmas morning!

The paths of

enlightenment

The problem generated by too many tourists has been highlighted by Mark Reid in his new book, The Inn Way ... to the North York Moors (Inn Way Publications, £7.99). He maintains that people must be aware of the effects they have upon the environment when visiting the beautiful yet fragile North York Moors national park. He believes that the answer is not to limit visitor numbers, but to encourage sustainable ways of developing tourism hand-in-hand with conservation.

He says: "If tourism is managed so that more 'tourist pounds' are put back into the local economy, then the guardians of this landscape - farmers, landowners and local people - will have more opportunity to ensure that the landscape is maintained for future generations."

He refers to those who drive to the moors, park on the verge to admire the view rather than walk, and then drink their flask of tea and have their sandwiches.

No money goes into the local economy, the verges are churned up and the view is spoilt for others who do not wish to see cars parked on the horizon.

Mark Reid's book is intended to encourage visitors to walk through the area and to take their time learning something about the district. It covers an 89-mile circular walk around the North York moors, beginning and ending at Helmsley but taking in some of the most beautiful and dramatic landscape in England.

On the way, it includes 31 traditional English pubs and so it is possible to complete the walk in short excursions, staying at the pubs if you wish or at bed and breakfast accommodation while enjoying and learning about the countryside en route.

The book would make a wonderful Christmas present but it is more than just a guide book. It leaves the reader with a deeper knowledge and understanding of the moors and indeed of country life. I think every New Labour politician should have one.

Carry on ranting

From my post bag this week comes a letter from a Darlington reader who asks me to "Keep Ranting". She refers especially to the problem of tourist litter along our road verges while expressing a view that schoolteachers could do much to educate youngsters against throwing litter.

She makes the point that many tourists will carry full and heavy drinks cans for mile and after mile, and then throw them away once they are empty and lighter.

A Bedale reader has joined the correspondence about shippons, saying that in her native Rochdale area, the word was, and probably still is, in common use when it relates to a cow shed. Byre tends to be the name in Scotland and northern England, while cow house is fairly widespread - but I do like Suffolk's cow lodge.