It may be an ancient ritual, but wassailing inspired many of our December traditions.

As a card-carrying “tree-hugger,” I note how December inspires widespread tree-worship by others. These “Druids-come-lately” can trace the origins of contemporary Yuletide rituals to ancient, pagan celebrations at Winter Solstice including the custom of “Wassailing.”

"Wassailing" rituals were preformed by Druids and later, by farmers, to ward off evil spirits and ensure a bountiful harvest. “Wassail” is from the Anglo Saxon words, “wes hal,” meaning “good health.”

Fruitful apple trees were anointed with cider, and small cakes were tied to apple boughs for birds viewed as protectors of trees. Low branches were pulled down, dipped into pails of cider and honored with poems, songs and toasts to health and fruitfulness. Celebrants gathered in orchards by night to cheer, beat on wooden buckets, blow ram’s horns and fire guns through bare apple branches to ward off evil.
Wassailing evolved during “Twelve Days of Christmas” when elaborately-carved “wassailing bowls” were filled with a concoction of roasted crab apples, spices and hot brown ale. Wassailers visited neighbors with bundles of greens festooned with dried fruits and bright ribbons to sing songs, beg alms and bring good tidings for the year ahead.
Many modern Yuletide rituals involve homage to "shrubbery:" kissing beneath a Mistletoe, decorating evergreens, making wreaths using holly berries and pine cones and burning a ceremonial Yule log.

December inspires nature rituals to insure good luck, fertility and good health at the close of the natural year. It's enough to make any "tree-hugger" exclaim:
"Love and joy come to you, and to you, your Wassail, too!”