Throw whatever you want on, a little Christmas decorations.

If you want to put some, you know, Christmas ornaments on there.

My sister's birthday is Christmas Eve, so we put candles on it every year.

I'm speaking with Maggie Ragacious.

Like, oh, my gracious.

And she's a baker.

We're discussing a sweet and eye-catching Christmas tradition,

one that I first learned about in my high school French class,

from Mr. Lavelle, or, pardon me, Monsieur Lavelle.

Around Christmas time, we'd start saying things like Jolio Noelle,

and the day before school was let out for Christmas break, we would celebrate with a like Julia Noel, and the day before school was

let out for Christmas break, we would celebrate with a fete de Noel, with a little sparkling

grape juice and a festive-looking cake made up to look like a yule log, La Bouch de Noel.

It's a favorite tradition, and also a very new one. One whose true beginnings date back centuries,

but wasn't ready to be born until several forces came together at about the same time,

including urbanization, industrialization, changing economies, and a dash of nostalgia.

Like the dessert itself, this tradition is made up of many layers.

I'm Brian Earle. This is Christmas past.

To understand the Bouch de Noel, the dessert,

first you have to know what a Yule log is.

And to understand that, you need to know what Yule itself is. So let's start there. But the trouble is that we don't

really know for sure what Yule is or was. We know that it was a Scandinavian wintertime tradition.

...