Wassailing Apple Trees: Meaning, History and How to Wassail an Orchard

What wassailing apple trees means

To wassail an apple tree is to bless it for the coming year. A group gathers in an orchard in midwinter, usually on or around Twelfth Night, chooses one tree, often the oldest or the best-bearing, and honors it: cider is poured on its roots, toast soaked in cider is placed in its branches, a song is sung and a toast is drunk to its health. Then everyone makes as much noise as possible, banging pots and pans, shouting and, traditionally, firing shotguns through the branches.

The stated purpose is simple: a good apple crop. The logic behind it, as recorded by folklorists, mixes several ideas: feeding the tree and the good spirits that live in it, waking the tree from winter sleep and scaring away whatever might harm it. Robins, which come for the toast, are often said to be the good spirits of the orchard.

For most people who go to a wassail today, the meaning is broader. It is a midwinter party with a purpose, a way to thank the land for last year's harvest and to wish it well for the next. That double movement, gratitude and hope, is why the custom has found new life far from the West Country.

From "be well" to the orchard: a short history

The word itself is Old English. Was hal meant "be well" or "be in good health", and the reply was "drinc hal", drink well. By the Middle Ages, wassail had become both a toast and the name of the spiced drink passed around in a bowl at Christmas and New Year.

Blessing fruit trees with that toast is first recorded in 1585 in Fordwich, Kent, where groups of young men went from orchard to orchard performing the rite for a reward. The historian Ronald Hutton, in The Stations of the Sun (1996), traces how the custom spread through the cider counties of southern England, above all Somerset, Devon and Herefordshire. In 1648 the poet Robert Herrick, a Devon parson, put it into verse in Hesperides: "Wassaile the Trees, that they may beare / You many a Plum, and many a Peare."

The custom made it into American literature too. In "Wild Apples", published in 1862, Henry David Thoreau described the Devonshire practice from older antiquarian sources: on Christmas Eve, farmers carried a bowl of cider with toast in it into the orchard, poured cider on the roots, put toast on the branches and drank to one of the best-bearing trees three times, to make them bear well the next season. Industrial farming and the decline of farm cider almost ended the tradition in the twentieth century; local revivals, often led by cider makers and folk singers, brought it back.

Twelfth Night or Old Twelvey: when to wassail

Wassailing belongs to the Twelve Days of Christmas. The most common date is Twelfth Night, the evening of January 5 or 6. Many West Country villages, including Carhampton in Somerset and Whimple in Devon, keep the older date of January 17, called Old Twelfth Night or "Old Twelvey".

The reason is a piece of real history. When Britain and its colonies switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752, eleven days were dropped. Communities that wanted to keep their customs on the "real" old date simply moved them eleven days later, and January 6 became January 17. In 2027, Twelfth Night falls on Tuesday, January 5, and Old Twelvey on Sunday, January 17. American cideries usually pick the nearest weekend in January, and some hold their wassail as late as February.

If you want to place wassailing in the wider season, it sits at the end of the dark half of the year that began with Yule and the old Christmas customs, like the legend that animals talk at midnight on Christmas Eve, which also lingers on Old Christmas, January 6.

What happens at an orchard wassail

No two wassails are identical, and that is part of the charm. But the sequence described by folklorists and practiced at most revivals follows the same arc.

Some wassails crown a wassail king and queen, usually to place the toast in the branches; some include Morris dancing; nearly all end around a fire with more hot cider. In older accounts the shooting was real, with shotguns fired through the bare branches. Most modern events use drums, pots and noisemakers instead.

The elements of a wassail and what they are said to do (tradition, not proof)

Element	Traditional purpose	Modern version
Cider on the roots	Feeding and thanking the tree	A cup of cider or juice
Toast in the branches	Feeding robins and good spirits	Toast, bread or donuts
Wassail song	Blessing the tree for a good crop	Group singing, often a local song
Noise and gunfire	Driving away bad spirits, waking the tree	Pots, pans, drums
Fire and torches	Light in the darkest season	Bonfire, lanterns

Toast, noise and the Apple Tree Man: the folklore

Much of what wassailing means lives in folklore rather than in documents. The cider-soaked toast is said to be for the robins, which in many English traditions are the good spirits of the orchard. The noise is meant to frighten off bad spirits, or in some versions to wake the tree from its winter sleep. The custom was sometimes called "howling", after the shouting that went with it.

Somerset also has a lovely folktale about the Apple Tree Man, the spirit of the oldest tree in an orchard. In the story, a poor man who shares his last mug of mulled cider with his trees is rewarded when the Apple Tree Man shows him where gold is buried. It is a moral tale about generosity and respect for the old trees, and it fits the wassail perfectly: give first, and the orchard gives back.

Like the Victorian habit of telling ghost stories at Christmas, wassailing belongs to a winter world in which the boundary between people and unseen forces felt thin. You do not need to believe in tree spirits to feel what the custom is about: a community standing together in the cold and saying thank you to the land that feeds it.

House wassailing and orchard wassailing

"Wassailing" means two related customs, and American readers often know only one of them from the carol "Here We Come A-Wassailing".

In house wassailing, groups went from door to door with a bowl, singing good wishes in exchange for food, drink or coins, which is where caroling and the line about "figgy pudding" in another carol come from. Orchard wassailing turns the same wish toward the trees. Both share the bowl, the song and the toast.

The drink in the bowl was usually hot ale or cider, spiced and sweetened, sometimes with roasted apples bursting in it. Today most people make wassail with cider, apple juice, cinnamon, cloves and orange; it is close to the Yule simmer pots many people already brew for scent, just meant for drinking.

Wassailing in America today

Wassailing came to the United States mainly through the craft cider revival. Orchards and cideries now hold winter wassails across the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest. In Massachusetts, the Berkshire Cider Project listed a wassail celebration for January 18, 2026. In Oregon, the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse near Portland hosts an annual Wassail Cider Fest. In Vermont, Champlain Orchards held a "Blessing of the Trees" in February 2025 with a bonfire, live music and mulled cider, and gave the old custom a local twist by hanging donuts in the trees for the birds.

These events are open, family-friendly and usually offer a non-alcoholic cider. If you live near an orchard or cidery, check their winter calendar in December; many announce wassails only a few weeks ahead. If you do not, a single apple tree in a yard or a community garden is enough for a small wassail of your own.

Quiz: what kind of wassail suits you?

Four quick questions to find the wassail that fits your winter.

Voices from practice

People who attend orchard wassails often describe the moment the noise starts as the best part: a crowd of adults banging pots in the dark like children.

Cider makers who host wassails commonly say the event is less about the next harvest than about bringing people back to the orchard in the quietest season of the year.

Practitioners of the Wheel of the Year frequently fold a wassail into their midwinter observances as a way to give thanks for the past harvest before planning the next one.

What we don't promise

We do not promise that wassailing will increase your apple crop, protect your trees from disease or bring prosperity. There is no evidence that pouring cider on roots, hanging toast or making noise affects how a tree bears; harvests depend on pollination, weather, pruning and care. What we can say is that the custom is well documented, centuries old and still alive, and that it gives a community, or a single person, a meaningful way to give thanks in the dark of the year. Look after your trees with good horticulture first, and bless them second.

Practically: how to work with this

1. Pick the date. Twelfth Night (Tuesday, January 5, 2027) or Old Twelvey (Sunday, January 17, 2027), or the nearest weekend.
2. Choose the tree. An apple tree if you have one; any fruit tree, or even a potted citrus, works for a symbolic wassail.
3. Make the wassail. Warm cider or apple juice with cinnamon, cloves and orange slices. Keep a non-alcoholic jug for children and drivers.
4. Bless the tree. Pour a cup on the roots, set a slice of cider-soaked toast in a fork of the branches and say or sing a short toast to its health.
5. Make the noise, safely. Pots, pans, drums, shouts. Skip the gunfire. If you light a fire or torches, check local burn rules and keep water nearby.
6. Close inside. Back at the table, name one thing you harvested this year and one thing you want to grow next year.

More in abundance and prosperity and gods and goddesses.

Frequently asked questions

What does it mean to wassail an apple tree?

It means blessing the tree in midwinter for a good crop: pouring cider on its roots, placing cider-soaked toast in its branches, singing a wassail song and making noise to drive away bad spirits.

When do you wassail apple trees?

Traditionally on Twelfth Night, January 5 or 6, or on Old Twelfth Night, January 17. In 2027 those dates fall on Tuesday, January 5, and Sunday, January 17. Many American cideries choose a weekend in January.

What does the word wassail mean?

It comes from the Old English toast "was hal", meaning be well or be in good health. The answer was "drinc hal", drink well.

Why do people put toast in apple trees?

Folklore says the cider-soaked toast feeds the robins and good spirits of the orchard. Practically, it is an offering that the birds enjoy.

Where can I go wassailing in the United States?

Many cideries and orchards in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest hold winter wassails, for example in Vermont, Massachusetts and Oregon. Check local cideries' calendars from December.

Does wassailing really help apple trees bear fruit?

There is no evidence that it does. Harvests depend on pollination, weather and care. Wassailing is a community blessing and a winter celebration.

Sources & further reading

• Ronald Hutton. The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Robert Herrick. Hesperides. London, 1648.
• Henry David Thoreau. Wild Apples. The Atlantic Monthly, November 1862.
• John Brand. Observations on Popular Antiquities. 1777; expanded by Henry Ellis, 1813.
• Wikipedia contributors. Apple Wassail (Fordwich 1585, Old Twelfth Night, Apple Tree Man). Accessed 2026.
• Atlas Obscura. Wassailing Apple Trees. Accessed 2026.
• The Middlebury Campus. Champlain Orchards revives wassailing, a traditional blessing of the trees. February 27, 2025.
• The Berkshire Edge. Wassail Celebration with Berkshire Cider Project, January 18, 2026 (event listing).