Wassail the Fruit Trees!
Thread the needle
On the 12th Day of Christmas it’s time to thread the needle with red yarn…
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Poke
…and poke the yarn through the cookies…
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Stack!
…until you have a big stack!
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Quince
Then tie the cookies onto our fruit trees…the Quince…
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Pear
…the Pear…
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Apple
…and the apple.
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Ale
…then pour ale onto the trunks of the trees to bless them.
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Waes Hael
Wake up trees! Happy New Year!
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Quimper Hittys 
Lovely tradition!
We like the idea of thanking the trees, and encouraging them to make us fruit – it’s a kind of gratitude or acknowledgement of the interdependence of life.
what a charming tradition. No wassailing here but I did put out a very large bird feeder and did the strewing of the sunflower seeds. Love seeing your girls in action.
I am sure the birds are grateful! The Quimper Hittys have so much fun! Every day is a new adventure!
Some friends and I used to wassail our trees each year starting at one house then going to the other and having supper together once we had done but for various reasons we stopped doing it. We just soaked bread in cider and stuffed it in forks in the branches then poured cider at the base of the tree. We also chanted a rhyme and made a lot of noise with pans and wooden spoons to scare the devils away. Sadly the trees still didn’t fruit very well. maybe they are very particular about the type of booze they drink? 😉
My Granddaughter and like to sing a wassail song and dance around the trees with our Hittys. We don’t know many people who do, but we think it’s fun! Soaking toast in cider sounds good – maybe we’ll try that next time, and yes, the trees might be particular!
There is nothing wrong with being different!
Speculaas! I wouldn’t be leaving those for the birds to feast on, they’d be sitting on my plate with a nice cup of coffee 😊
We’ve tried Melba toast, English Muffins and bread crusts. We like the fact that the Speculaas had little divots that were easy to make into holes to thread the yarn into. Tragically some of them broke so we were forced to eat them ourselves!
So beautiful and lovely, Thank you dearest, Love, nia
You are very welcome nia, we always have fun in the garden, even in winter!
I did not know about this! Thank you so much for sharing it!
You are very welcome! It seems like a good idea to me to keep celebrating some of the old traditions that are connected to food and harvest – sometimes I think we are too far from understanding, for instance, that apples grow on trees!
The dolls working hard! Wonderful photos 🙂
We are grateful for their encouraging messages to the trees – we think little wooden whispers should have a good effect on them!