Name: Wassail & Lantern Making
Start: 2025-01-11T15:00:00+00:00
End: 2025-01-11T18:00:00+00:00
Location: Park in The Past

CELEBRATE THIS ANCIENT APPLE FESTIVAL WITH YOUR FAMILY
Crackling fire, glowing lanterns, steaming hot mulled apple juice and merriment a-plenty for all the family! Celebrate a traditional Wassailing with us as we bless the fruit trees for a bountiful harvest. Let’s face it, January is a rubbish month when nothing much happens, but in villages up and down the country, around Old Twelfth Night, traditional Wassails are returning, so let’s bring some light and celebration to this time of year. Families with children of all ages are welcome to join us at Park in the Past for an event which promises to be very special and magical with music, food and good company. “Wassail!”
ACTIVITES INCLUDE:
* Craft a willow lantern with your family
* Enjoy hot mulled apple cider (non-alcoholic)
* Traditional Wassailing ceremony – blessing of the trees
* Cook up toffee apple slices on our blazing campfire
* Join the lantern procession to the orchard
* Share a sip from the wassail bowl & munch on apple cake
* Sing-along with wassail songs; James will have his mandolin
* Discover the ancient traditions of Wassailing & learn the history behind it
Make a lantern with your family and join our procession to the orchard where you will learn about the tradition of wassailing and take part in the ceremony. We will be passing around the traditional wassail bowl filled to the brim with our secret winter-warming recipe, sharing slices of home-made apple cake and cooking up sticky toffee apple slices over the campfire. Come a-wassailing, as we sing-along to traditional songs of the season with live music provided by James’ mandolin.
Lea and James will be your guides to this traditional celebration as we gather under our huge parachute canopy and share the warmth of the winter fire.
BOOKING
Get in touch if you’d like to know more. Phone James, 07876 794 098 or email us. Advance booking is essential. Tickets are available on our website: https://woodlandclassroom.com/event/wassail-lantern-making-2/
This event costs £35 per family (up to 4) additional family members are £5 each.
ABOUT THE VENUE
Park In The Past comprises 120 acres of outstanding natural beauty offering woodlands and wetlands, a magnificent 35-acre lake and the gorgeous River Alyn winding through it, as well as wonderful walks and spacious fields. Visitors can journey back 2,000 years and discover the recreated Roman Fort Build, an ongoing project in experimental archaeology and the only one of its kind in the UK.
WHAT IS WASSAILING?
Wassailing refers to drinking (and singing) the health of trees in the hopes that they might better thrive. The purpose of wassailing is to awake the cider apple trees and to scare away evil spirits to ensure a good harvest of fruit in the Autumn. The ceremonies of each Wassail vary from village to village but they generally all have the same core elements. A wassail King and Queen lead the song and procession to be played from one orchard to the next. This ancient British tradition is still very much thriving today.
Want to know what Wassailing is all about? Come along and find out what roles soggy toast, pots & pans and a child up a tree have to play in this ancient tradition. By wassailing the apple and pear trees we will be blessing them for a bountiful harvest next autumn. The old call will go out for “Hatfuls, capfuls, three bushel bagfuls and little heaps under the stairs!”