Air Date: Week of December 12, 2025

A hot mug of wassail is a delicious beverage made of mulled cider, sometimes spiked with whiskey or rum. The beverage is commonly drunk during wassailing, a tradition where people going door-to-door, singing and offering a drink from the wassail bowl in exchange for gifts or visiting the apple orchards and singing to the trees to promote a bountiful harvest in the coming year. (Photo: Deckhand, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

As a preview for next week’s Winter Solstice storytelling special, we feature a traditional “Wassail Song” with storyteller Diane Edgecomb.

Transcript

CURWOOD: Tune in next time for a holiday tradition here at Living on Earth, winter stories and songs. We’ll celebrate the solstice with storyteller Diane Edgecomb. So grab a mug of wassail, or hot, mulled beverage and enjoy this taste of a traditional Wassail song.

[MUSIC: Diane Edgecomb and Margot Chamberlain, “Wassail Song” on The Winter Solstice in Story and Song.]

Wassail, wassail, all over the town,
Our toast it is white and our ale it is brown;
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree,
With the wassailing bowl we'll drink to thee,
Drink to thee, drink to thee,
With the wassailing bowl we'll drink to thee.

Oh here is to Cherry and to his right eye,
May God send my master a good Christmas pie,
And a good Christmas pie that may we all see;
With our wassailing bowl we'll drink to thee.
Drink to thee, drink to thee,
With our wassailing bowl we'll drink to thee.

Oh here's to the cow and to her right horn,
May God send my mistress a good crop of corn,
And a good crop of corn that may we all see;
With a wassailing bowl we’ll drink to thee
Drink to thee, drink to thee,
With a wassailing bowl we'll drink to thee.

 

Links

Learn more about Diane Edgecomb.

Learn more about the Wassailing tradition.

bon appétit | “In New York’s Hudson Valley, the Ancient Wassail Tradition Is Alive and Well”

Fruition Seeds | “Wassail! A Brief History, Recipe & Invitation”

BBC | “Wassailing the Old English Apple Tree”

Find Diane Edgecomb's CD, "The Winter Solstice in Story and Song"