15 ways to celebrate an Irish-Catholic Christmas!

How did our Irish CATHOLIC ancestors celebrate Christmas?

1. Everyone fasted throughout Advent, like at Lent. This was to build up and emphasize feasting later.

2. Rooms and outhouses were whitewashed with lime to ensure cleanliness for the coming Redeemer.

3. Holly and ivy replaced wreaths and garland. Matchboxes were covered with tinfoil as festive ornaments to reflect the fireplace and candlelight.

4. A trip to the market involved buying big bags of flour, dried fruit for the fruitcake and stout beer for the plum pudding.

5. An oyster and fish dinner was served on Christmas eve followed by Irish coffee, see below ingredients. Christmas, officially began at midnight with Latin Mass.

2 teaspoons packed brown sugar, to taste

4 ounces strong, hot coffee

1 1/2 ounces Irish whiskey

1 ounce heavy cream, lightly whipped

6. Families would act out the Nativity pageant with the youngest volun"told" to be baby Jesus.

7. A Christmas goose or squirrel sufficed as dinner for the thrifty. For the rich, a stuffed boars head with an apple in its mouth was eaten. If the wishbone was found by a single girl, it signified her encroaching marriage. A bloody fistfight in our 3-sister family led to Christmas hams, henceforth.

8. Doors were left unlocked and a snack was left out for the Holy Family.

9. Candles were left in windows on Christmas Eve with the door unlocked to light the way for the Holy Family. Any other travelers were also invited and the homeless people were given a bed for the night. Sometimes, candles were placed inside a hollowed-out turnip or gourd for safety.

10. Care packages or "boxes" were given to the poor.

Children would receive 1-gift only, especially during the famine years.

Household gifts might be potato eye shoots or oranges--a rarity.

Thereafter, every feast included every kind of potato recipe. This was to honor family members who starved during the "Gorta Mor" or potato blight.

11. Letters from immigrants were read aloud. Sometimes, there was money. This may explain Hallmark's Christmas Cards with family letters.

12. St Stephens Day or 12/26 was like a Homecoming Day.

All the men and boys hunted the wren. In lieu of a dove or Holy Spirit, a wren was captured, caged and paraded through parish houses and pubs for all to be blessed, followed by drinks and snacks--in each house.

After the bird's capture, women would join in the parade, seeking alms and singing (they were called Mummers) which may have morphed into our modern carolers. Unfortunately, pagans did other things to the poor wren <cue the Clancey Brothers & Tommy Makem singing "The Wren song.">

Out of respect, houses in mourning were avoided.

A song called the "12-pubs of Christmas" evolved from those with a "flair for the foam." This may have led to our 12-days of Christmas song.

13. Women's Christmas -- or "Nollaig na mBan" was held on 1/6 or the last day of the Christmas season. On this day, all men were responsible for indoor chores.