00:00Welsh Christmas traditions all follow some similar patterns.
00:04Of course, given our rich creative history,
00:06there's plenty of singing and poetry involved,
00:08and they're all a good old laugh.
00:10Probably the most famous Welsh Christmas tradition
00:13is, of course, the Marie Lloyd.
00:15It's a frightening thing to see, but the whole idea
00:17is that someone dressed in a sheet carrying a hobby horse
00:20made out of a real horse's skull
00:22will be led around the village on Christmas nights.
00:25The tradition is dated back to the early 1800s
00:28and had a group of men going door to door with the Marie Lloyd
00:31requesting to enter through song,
00:33with people expected to reply in song back,
00:35trying to get rid of them, as this would go back and forth,
00:38eventually leading to them being invited in
00:40and given food and drink.
00:42We've seen the Marie Lloyd come back a little bit recently,
00:45not so much in the trying to steal food and drink from your neighbours,
00:48but in traditional settings, performances,
00:50and maybe you've seen one knocking around.
00:52A lot of the Welsh Christmas traditions
00:54centre around the Christmas and New Year's period,
00:56so when we're all knocking around,
00:58wondering what to do with ourselves,
01:00maybe we could try the old tradition of toffee making.
01:03Nos on give life, meaning toffee evening,
01:05was a traditional way of spending the long nights over Christmas.
01:08You invite your friends and family round,
01:10tell stories, play games, and then make toffee.
01:14When the toffee is boiled, you pour it out onto a cool slab,
01:17and when it's warm, but not too hot,
01:19you all butter your hands and pull the toffee until it's finished.
01:22Then, when it's all done, you can all have
01:24a delicious, freshly made toffee. Can't go wrong.
01:27Other traditions include homing on Boxing Day,
01:29which included whacking whoever was the last one up in the morning
01:32with some holly, so that one might not be very nice to bring back.
01:36There's also a plegain, which hymns and Christmas songs
01:39were sung between 3am and 6am on Christmas morning,
01:42which is nice, but maybe a little bit early for most of us.
01:45Some of these traditions might not be making an immediate comeback,
01:48but maybe there's some room in your Christmas calendar for some of these.
01:52Most Christmases are about singing, eating, drinking,
01:54and spending time with your family.
01:56So however you celebrate, nadolig chloe, Merry Christmas.
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