this custom

"Now all our neighbours chimnies smoke,
And _Christmas logs_ are burning,
Their ovens they with baked meate choke,
And all their spits are turning."


And in another place we hear that

"The wenches with their _wassell bowles_
About the streete are singing."


_Wassail-bowl_.--Formerly it was customary to _wassail_ on
Christmas Eve, or drink health to the apple trees.

"Wassaile the trees that they may beare
You many a plum and many a peare,
For more or lesse fruits they will bringe,
And do you give them wassailing."

HERRICK.


Sir Thomas Acland informed Mr. Brand, in 1790, that at Werington, on
Christmas Eve, "it was then customary for the country people to sing a
wassail or drinking song, and throw the toast from the wassail-bowl to
the apple-trees, in order to have a fruitful tree."