Christmas in Wales

How the Welsh celebrate Christmas

Most of the modern Welsh Christmas is shared with England and the rest of the UK: Advent calendars, decorated trees, Christmas markets, a roast dinner with crackers on 25 December, stockings for Siôn Corn (Father Christmas) and Boxing Day, known in Welsh as Gŵyl San Steffan. Many cards and greetings are bilingual, with Nadolig Llawen (Merry Christmas) beside the English. For a wider picture of the British Christmas, see Christmas in the UK.

What makes Wales different is a group of winter customs that survived in rural parishes and mining valleys and have been revived since the mid-20th century, often with the help of St Fagans National Museum of History near Cardiff. They are built around singing, verse and visiting: carols sung in harmony in candlelit chapels, rhyming contests on the doorstep, toffee pulled by hand and New Year greetings carried from house to house.

The Plygain: Welsh carols at cock-crow

The Plygain (pronounced roughly "plug-ine") takes its name from the Latin pullicantio, cock-crow. It began as an early-morning service in the parish church on Christmas Day, held in the dark hours, often between about 3am and 6am, by candlelight, and continuing into daylight. It later spread to nonconformist chapels and today is mostly held in the evening.

A Plygain has no programme and no conductor. After a short service, the minister announces "Mae'r Plygain yn awr yn agored" ("the Plygain is now open"), and soloists, duets, trios, family parties and sometimes whole choirs walk forward one after another to sing an unaccompanied carol, usually in three-part harmony. When everyone has sung, a second round follows in the same order, and no carol may be sung twice in one service. Many carols were written by local poets, set to popular tunes and copied by hand into family notebooks passed down the generations; they often reflect on the Crucifixion as well as the Nativity. By custom the service ends with Carol y Swper, the Supper Carol, sung by the men of the congregation.

The tradition is strongest in Montgomeryshire and mid-Wales, and about 50 Plygain services are now held each December and January. A service held in January may read the story of the wise men from St Matthew's Gospel rather than the shepherds from St Luke.

The Mari Lwyd and the pwnco

The Mari Lwyd, usually translated "grey mare", is the most striking Welsh winter custom. A horse's skull is mounted on a pole and draped in a white sheet, with ribbons and bells; a man hidden under the sheet works the jaw so that it snaps at the crowd. The Mari is led from house to house, or now more often from pub to pub, by a party that may include characters such as the Sergeant, the Merryman, and Punch and Judy.

At each door the party sings verses asking to be let in, and the household sings back with excuses. This battle of improvised rhymes is the pwnco, and it continues until the people inside run out of replies and must open the door and offer food and drink. The custom belongs mainly to south Wales, above all Glamorgan, and the earliest published account dates from 1800. It declined in the early 20th century and has since been revived, at Llangynwyd near Bridgend, around Caerphilly and Llantrisant, at St Fagans, and at a well-known January gathering in Chepstow. The Mari Lwyd traditionally walks between Christmas and Twelfth Night, and today also appears at Hen Galan celebrations in January.

Noson Gyflaith: the toffee evening

In parts of north Wales, Noson Gyflaith was a Christmas or New Year party. Families invited friends to supper, usually a Christmas dinner, followed by games and storytelling. Then came the toffee: cyflaith of butter, sugar and treacle was boiled, poured onto a well-greased slate or stone slab, sometimes the hearthstone itself, and pulled and twisted with buttered hands until it turned golden. Skilled pullers were admired and beginners teased. Toffee-making also filled the long night before an early Plygain. In the south Wales coalfield, home-made toffee was sold from front rooms and market stalls under names such as taffi and losin.

Christmas Day and Gŵyl San Steffan

Christmas Eve brings carol services and midnight Mass, and stockings are hung for Siôn Corn. On Christmas Day, presents come first, many people go to church or chapel, and the day centres on Christmas dinner. Hardy swimmers take a festive dip in the sea, for example at Porthcawl on Christmas morning.

Boxing Day, 26 December, is Gŵyl San Steffan, St Stephen's Day, a day for walks, family visits and sport. An old Welsh custom, which died out in the 19th century, was holming: late risers and female servants were beaten with holly branches, supposedly for luck. In 2026, Christmas Day falls on a Friday and Boxing Day on a Saturday, so the Boxing Day bank holiday moves to Monday 28 December, as in England.

Calennig, Nos Galan and the Old New Year

Calennig on 1 January

New Year was once a bigger festival than Christmas in much of rural Wales. On New Year's Day, Calan, the young rose early and went from door to door collecting calennig, New Year's gifts. They sang short verses announcing the new year and wishing the household health and plenty, and were given pennies, food or sweets; the round had to be finished by midday. Many carried a decorated apple standing on three sticks, studded with hazelnuts and topped with a sprig of box. The greeting of the day is Blwyddyn Newydd Dda, Happy New Year, and anyone wanting to pass it on can find free New Year cards to share after Calennig, along with New Year 2027 status images, quote cards and ready-to-send wishes.

Nos Galan: New Year's Eve

On Nos Galan, New Year's Eve, the town of Mountain Ash (Aberpennar) in the Cynon Valley holds the Nos Galan road races in memory of Guto Nyth Brân (1700–1737), a legendary runner from the area, and Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys stages a torch-lit Mari Lwyd procession.

Hen Galan in Cwm Gwaun

In Cwm Gwaun, the Gwaun Valley near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, the new year does not really begin until 13 January. When Britain moved from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752, the valley kept the old date, and Hen Galan, the Old New Year, is still celebrated, with the young singing from house to house for calennig and the community gathering in the evening at the Dyffryn Arms.

Wassailing and Hunting the Wren

Two other customs belonged to the end of the season. In wassailing, groups went from house to house on New Year's Day or Twelfth Night carrying a large bowl of spiced ale made with beer, sugar, fruit and spices, offering good wishes for the household's health and prosperity. Glamorgan potters, especially at Ewenny in the Vale of Glamorgan, made elaborate wassail bowls for the purpose. In Hela'r Dryw, Hunting the Wren, young men caught a wren around Twelfth Day and paraded it in a decorated "wren house", a small wooden box with windows, trimmed with ribbons and greenery. The custom survived in Pembrokeshire until the early 20th century, and wren houses are kept at St Fagans.

Dylan Thomas and the Welsh Christmas

The most famous piece of writing about a Welsh Christmas is Dylan Thomas's prose memoir of the Christmases of his youth, a rush of snow, presents and visiting relatives ("It was snowing. It was always snowing at Christmas."). It grew out of a BBC radio talk, Memories of Christmas, broadcast in December 1945, and a 1947 Picture Post article, Conversation about Christmas; Thomas combined the two for Harper's Bazaar in 1950. On 22 February 1952 he recorded it at Steinway Hall in New York, reading from a copy of the magazine, for the first LP released by the new Caedmon label. The recording was added to the US National Recording Registry in 2008. The piece first appeared in book form in 1954 and was published under its own title in 1955, and it is still read aloud in Wales and far beyond every December.

Christmas around Wales

Other markets include Swansea's Christmas street market on Oxford Street, Cowbridge and Narberth, and the Royal Welsh Winter Fair at Builth Wells, held over two days at the end of November or start of December.

Traditional Welsh Christmas food

Today's Welsh Christmas dinner is usually turkey with all the British trimmings, but older Welsh menus tell a different story.

In Margam, tradition held that a young woman who tasted thirteen different Christmas loaf cakes in one season would marry before the next Christmas.

Welsh Christmas season dates 2026

Plygain services and Mari Lwyd visits are held on various dates through December and January; check local chapel, church and event listings.

Christmas in Wales: frequently asked questions

Christmas in nearby countries