The Twelve Days of Christmas, known as Twelvetide, is the festive season celebrating the Nativity of Jesus Christ. Christmas Day is the First Day of Christmas and the Twelve Days are 25 December – 5 January, inclusive. Christmas and Epiphany are among the Twelve Great Feasts.

The period between Christmas and Epiphany is fast-free and one celebration leads into another. One of the best quotes I read this Christmas was from the excellent Geffrye Museum,

"Christmas ... was a time for hospitality and charity and also an occasion for feasting, drinking, dancing and gambling. This rowdy behaviour led one writer in 1583 to sourly complain of Christmas, 'that more mischief is that time committed than in all the year besides.'"