Yule Traditions and Their Origins

Ancient Yule Traditions of the Norse and Anglo-Saxons

What the oldest written sources say about Yule before it became Christmas.

1. Yule once filled two months The oldest records describe two Yule months around the winter solstice. A Gothic calendar from about 350 CE names fruma jiuleis, “the month before the Yule month”. Bede, writing around 726 CE, says the heathen Anglo-Saxons called both December and January Giuli, “the months of Yule”. ↳ Yule
2. Yule lasted three days from Midwinter Night Hákonar saga góða says the heathen Nordic Yule began on hǫkunótt, equated with Midwinter Night, and continued for three days. An Icelandic text from around 1220 places the month Ýlir from mid-November to mid-December, followed by Jólmánuðr, the “Yule month”. ↳ Yule
3. Kings “drank Yule” Haraldskvæði, a poem composed around 900 CE, praises a heathen king who “drinks Yule”. Old Norse terms such as jóladrykkja, “Yule drinking”, show how central ale was to the feast. ↳ Yule
4. Norway fined anyone without Yule ale According to Hákonar saga góða, King Hákon the Good moved Yule to Christmas time, fined anyone who did not have a measure of ale at Yule (estimated at around 16.2 litres), and made it law that the holiday last as long as the ale did. An early Norwegian law code also punished people for preparing Yule ale the wrong way. ↳ Yule
5. Oaths were sworn on the Yule boar On Yule Eve, according to Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks, people laid their hands on the bristles of a boar called the sonargöltr and swore solemn oaths. Some manuscripts say the pig was holy and devoted to the god Freyr, and was then sacrificed. The vow custom is called heitstrenging. ↳ Sonargöltr
6. Yule had wrestling and ball games Games at Yule are widely recorded in the Old Norse sagas, including glíma wrestling in Króka-Refs saga, the ball game knattleikr in Hálfdanar saga Eysteinssonar and tug-of-war in Hjálmþés saga ok Ölvis. ↳ Yule
7. A Yule dance in Constantinople A 10th-century Byzantine Book of Ceremonies describes a Twelfth Night performance in which two circles of men danced, one inside the other, beating their shields with sticks and shouting “Toúl”. The word is widely read as a garbled jól, “Yule”, though its meaning is debated. ↳ Yule
8. Odin was “the Yule man” One of the many names of Odin is Jólnir, “Yule man”, and the poet Eyvindr skáldaspillir used the related word jólnar for the gods. ↳ Yule

Scary Yule Traditions: Ghosts, Trolls and the Wild Hunt

Yule fell in the darkest part of the year, and much of its folklore is about who comes knocking in the dark.

9. The dead came visiting at Yule Visits from trolls, berserkers and undead draugar at Yule are widely attested in northern European folklore. In Grettis saga, the hero Grettir beheads Glámr, an undead shepherd who had been haunting the area at Yule. ↳ Yule
10. The Yule host stole horses In Norway the supernatural host that rode at midwinter had names such as Oskoreia and Julereia, “the Yule ride”. Folktales say it raided farms for Christmas food and ale, and sometimes took people or horses. Stolen horses were ridden almost to death. ↳ Yule
11. A sheaf was left for Odin’s horse In several regions Odin leads the host. In southern Scandinavia, the last sheaf cut at harvest, or grass from haymaking, was left out around Christmas for Odin’s horse or horses. ↳ Yule
12. Ghost stories around the Yule log A 1914 record of Christmas customs from a Swaledale woman says: “To sit around the Yule log and tell ghost stories is a great thing to do on this night.” The log was not supposed to go out until it had burned away. ↳ Yule log
13. Greek Yule logs kept monsters out In Greece, the Yule log was believed to drive away the kallikantzaroi, the evil monsters of local folklore, from the home. ↳ Yule log
14. Grýla begs for naughty children Grýla is a monstrous figure of Icelandic folklore. In 17th-century poems she is a hideous, greedy troll-like crone who wanders between settlements demanding charity, often asking for naughty children. Her name appears in 13th-century texts, but the oldest source linking her to Christmas is a poem from around 1638–1644. Today her appetite for children is toned down for young audiences. ↳ Grýla
15. The Yule Cat eats people with no new clothes Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat, is a huge, vicious cat said to eat people who have not received new clothing before Christmas Eve. The threat pushed farm workers to finish processing the autumn wool, since those who helped were rewarded with new clothes. In 2018 Reykjavík put up a 5-metre iron Yule Cat in its central square. ↳ Yule cat
16. Thirteen Yule Lads arrive one by one The 13 Yule Lads, sons of Grýla, arrive one at a time over the 13 nights before Christmas. Children leave a shoe on the windowsill: good children get a small gift, disobedient ones a rotten potato. In 1746, using the Yule Lads to frighten children was officially banned. ↳ Icelandic Christmas folklore
17. Never hide the nisse’s butter The nisse, or tomte, a Nordic household spirit, expected a bowl of porridge on Christmas Eve, with a pat of butter on top. In a much-retold tale a farmer put the butter underneath. The furious nisse killed the cow in the barn, then went back to his porridge and found the butter at the bottom. ↳ Nisse (folklore)

Yule Log Traditions

The best-known Yule tradition is younger than its name suggests, and it takes very different forms across Europe.

18. The first Christmas log was a whole tree The first solid evidence for a special Christmas log is a German legal manuscript from 1184, which records that the manse of Ahlen was entitled to a whole tree for a festive fire on Christmas Eve. In Dubrovnik in 1272, sailors brought the count a large log on Christmas Eve and were rewarded with two gold coins and alcohol. ↳ Yule log
19. It was the “Christmas log” first In English the custom first appears in Robert Herrick’s poems of 1648, where it is called the “Christmas log”. The name “Yule log” first turns up in John Aubrey’s writings between 1650 and 1687. ↳ Yule log
20. Candles lit from the burning log In the same 1914 account, all other lights were put out just before supper on Christmas Eve and the youngest person present lit two large candles from the burning Yule log. Everyone stayed silent and made a wish, which was usually kept secret. ↳ Yule log
21. Provence blesses the log with wine In Provence, where the custom is still widely observed, it is called cacho fio. The grandfather parades the log three times around the house, it is blessed with wine, and it is often lit together with the saved ashes of the previous year’s log. ↳ Yule log
22. Catalan children beat a log for sweets The Tió de Nadal is a magic log that Catalan children “feed” before Christmas. Singing children cover it with a blanket and beat it with sticks to make it “poop” nougat candy and small gifts. ↳ Yule log
23. A TV Yule log since 1966 New York station WPIX first broadcast its Yule Log, a loop of a log burning in a fireplace filmed at Gracie Mansion, on December 24, 1966. The station still airs it for four to five hours every Christmas morning. ↳ Yule log
24. The Yule log became a cake The bûche de Noël, a rolled sponge cake iced to look like a log, emerged in the 19th century, probably in France. Its name first meant the real log and passed to the dessert after the burning custom fell out of popular use. ↳ Yule log (cake)

Yule Goats, Guisers and Wassail

Costumes, door-to-door visits and drinks to good health run through Yule traditions from Finland to Wales.

25. The Yule goat may be Thor’s A popular theory links the Yule goat to Thor, whose chariot was pulled by two goats. The last sheaf of the harvest, credited with magical properties, was saved for Yule and called the Yule goat. A popular prank was to sneak a straw Yule goat into a neighbour’s house; the family pranked had to get rid of it the same way. ↳ Yule goat
26. Julebukking is Yule trick-or-treating Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, people in masks and costumes go door to door as julebukkers, and the neighbours try to guess who is under each disguise. The visitors are offered treats and a drink before moving on. ↳ Yule goat
27. Finland’s Santa is still the Yule goat Finland’s Father Christmas is Joulupukki, which literally means “Yule goat”. Today he looks much like Santa Claus, and he receives over 500,000 letters from over 200 countries every year. ↳ Joulupukki
28. Wassail means “be in good health” Wassail comes from the Old Norse greeting ves heill. In the cider counties of England, wassailers sing and drink to the health of apple trees on Twelfth Night, to wake the trees and scare away evil spirits. ↳ Wassail
29. Wales sends a horse skull to the door The Mari Lwyd, a South Welsh wassailing custom first recorded in 1800, is a horse’s skull on a pole carried by someone hidden under a sheet. Its team asks in song to be let into a house, the householders refuse in song, and if they finally give in the visitors get food and drink. ↳ Mari Lwyd

Yule Traditions at the Table and Today

Many Yule traditions survive in Nordic Christmas food, gifts and television.

30. Christmas ham may go back to the Yule boar The Christmas or Yule ham is thought to have evolved from the sacrifice of the sonargöltr boar to Freyr. In Sweden it is the centrepiece of the julbord, coated with egg, breadcrumbs and mustard and browned in the oven. ↳ Christmas ham
31. Find the almond in the rice pudding In Sweden an almond is hidden in the Christmas rice pudding, and whoever finds it receives a small prize or is said to have good luck. ↳ Christmas in Sweden
32. Iceland gives books on Christmas Eve In the Jólabókaflóð, the Yule book flood, new books come out before Christmas and are given as presents on Christmas Eve. It began in 1944, when the first Bókatíðindi catalogue of new books was published; it is sent free to every household. ↳ Icelandic Christmas book flood
33. Sweden watches Donald Duck on Christmas Eve Sveriges Television has aired the 1958 Disney special From All of Us to All of You, known in Swedish as Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul, on Christmas Eve every year since 1960. ↳ Christmas in Sweden
34. Yule is still the word for Christmas Variants of Yule are the main names for Christmas in the North Germanic and Finnic languages, from jul and jól to Finnish joulu. In Scots, Yule or Yuil is traditionally the main name for Christmas, and in English Yuletide still means the Christmas season. In most forms of Wicca, Yule is celebrated at the winter solstice. ↳ Yule

Yule Traditions vs. Our Other Holiday Pages

This page is about Yule itself and the customs that grew out of it. For the longest night across the whole world, see our winter solstice traditions. For the rest of the season, read our Christmas facts and New Years traditions, which are sourced the same way.

How to Use These Yule Traditions

Read one aloud by the fire, put an almond in the rice pudding, or turn the list into a quiz: which country beats a log for sweets, and which cat eats people without new clothes? Each takes 15 to 30 seconds. For darker midwinter reading, try our Krampus stories, famous ghost stories or weird history facts.

How We Checked These Yule Traditions

Every one of these Yule traditions links to the Wikipedia article we checked it against on October 23, 2026. Much of what is written about pagan Yule is uncertain: our sources are mostly sagas written down centuries after Christianisation, and scholars still debate how far customs like the Yule log go back. Where a word or link is debated, such as “Toúl” or the boar behind the Christmas ham, we say so. If you spot an error, tell us through the contact page.

Yule Traditions and Their Origins — FAQ