The Wassail Bowl contained liquor in which healths were drunk in the long ago, the favorite content being the spiced ale used in Christmas eve and Twelfth-night celebrations. The custom of brewing a Wassail bowl has fallen into disuse and is revived only rarely.

The word "Wassail" used of old when presenting a cup of wine, or drinking a comrade's health, car­ried the same meaning as "hail" and "farewell." The reply to the salutation "Wassail," when presenting the bowl of wine, was "Drink-hail," in accepting it.

Sang Sir Walter Scott in his Lay of the Last Min­strel "The blithesome signs of wassel gay, Decay'd not with the dying day."

Wassail Bowl

2 baked apples

2 tablespoons fine sugar

1 tablespoon allspice

1 lemon, juice and peel

1 quart hot ale

1 pint warm sherry

To make the Wassail Bowl bake two apples and cut in small pieces. Add the sugar, the allspice, the lemon, the heated ale, and warm sherry. Mix well, mashing with a muddler, heat and serve hot.

The Wassail Bowl is as significant of Christmas as is St. Nicholas himself. After sampling, who shall say there ain't no Santa Claus? Perhaps, indeed, it was the original Wassail Bowl that inspired this love­liest myth of childhood, when out of good fellowship engendered by the mellowing Christmas brew, the spirit of Christmas took shape in the hearts of men. Hail the Wassail Bowl! We know there's a Santa Claus!

"A bottle of strong beer wch in this country [Norfolk] they call 'nog'." 1698.

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