While Christmas today is thought of as a time of joy and peace, Christmas in medieval England after 1066 instead achieved heights of extravagance and rowdiness. Celebrating the season for the full twelve days was no problem: People would attend church in masks and costumes as on Halloween, and churchgoers would sing off-color songs and even roll dice on the altar.

Christmas during this period was a time for some good-natured ribbing of the church’s solemnity. A touch of comedy was added to the sermons, which were so serious during the rest of the year. The festivities weren’t entirely irreverent, however: There was also devout caroling and Nativity plays, although in the latter Herod was often portrayed in a comic vein.

The king and court had a grand time trying to outdo each other with outrageous abundance. Henry III had 600 oxen killed and prepared for a single feast—and that was just the main course. Merchants and other higher ups paid their respects to the king by giving him gifts and cash, and there were guidelines for gift giving based on one’s social position. Henry once closed merchants until they paid their proper dues, although in 1248 he seemed to regain a bit of his Christmas spirit when he established a custom of giving food to the needy for the holiday.

Gambling was also a big part of the festivities around the court; stories of royalty using loaded dice to insure against losing seem to capture the spirit of the age. But royal excess at Christmas surely reached its height in 1377. In that year, Richard II had a Christmas feast for more than 10,000 people. Records don’t indicate whether the 2,000 employed at the feast enjoyed the holiday.

The fourteenth century also saw the beginning of widespread caroling. Carols had been used in Roman churches as early as the second century, but they came to England much later, by way of France. In the Middle Ages, they were used in conjunction with Nativity plays to convey the Christmas story to those who could not read. By the 1500s, the mummers, a traveling band of costumed carousers somewhat like street actors, were out and about.

In 1533, Henry VIII made himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England, taking on the power of regulating religious holidays, including Christmas. He then proceeded to rival Henry III in yuletide extravagance.

Under his rule, Christmas became a very big deal indeed, both socially and ecclesiastically, and Christmas celebrations were filled with dancing, plays, general carousing, and, of course, food. This tradition was carried on by his daughter, Elizabeth I, and upon the accession of James I in 1603, by the Stuarts.