What Shakespeare play mentions Christmas?

Answer 1

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will mentions Christmas celebrations in its title.

Twelfth Night is the 12th night of Christmas celebrations - either the eve of Epiphany (5th January), or the day of it (6th January) - and is traditionally the time to take down Christmas decorations (see link: Twelfth Night and Decorations).

Some say that Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was first performed at this time or written around this time, the first recorded performance being Candlemas (2nd February) 1602. Elements of this comedy reflect traditional Twelfth Night entertainment where roles are reversed and gender can be switched.

The play Hamlet mentions the celebrating of the birth of Christ -

Marcellus in Act I, Sc. i:

"Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes

Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,

The bird of dawning singeth all night long:

And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;

The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,

No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,

So hallow'd and so gracious is the time."

For mention of the actual word 'Christmas', see Love's Labour's Lost -

Berowne in Act I, Sc. i:

"At Christmas I no more desire a rose

Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth"

Answer 2

Marcellus in Hamlet mentions Christmas although not by name: "Some say that ever, 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long." Despite its title, there are no references in the play Twelfth Night to Twelfth Night or anything else having to do with Christmas. It appears that the title "What You Will" was the original name of the play, but someone else also wrote a play by that name and this one was called Twelfth Night as an afterthought to prevent confusion. Christmas is mentioned in both Taming of the Shrew and Love's Labour's Lost as a time when simple plays or skits were enacted.

Answer 3

Two plays mention Christmas specifically: Love's Labour's Lost and Taming of the Shrew. In Love's Labour's Lost, Berowne says " here was a consent, Knowing aforehand of our merriment, To dash it like a Christmas comedy" and Sly says in the Induction to Shrew, "Marry, I will; let them play it. Is not a comonty a Christmas gambold or a tumbling-trick?". By "comonty" he means comedy, we suppose, since Sly is a serious lowbrow. Apparently it was the custom to perform simple skits at Christmas time which the audiences, if Berowne is to be believed, tried to "dash".

Berowne also uses Christmas as a figure for wintertime: "At Christmas I no more desire a rose Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth".

Marcellus in Hamlet refers to a Christmas legend, "Some say that ever, 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long"

Answer 4

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