Christmas just wouldn't be the same without its supporting cast of animals, whether it's

reindeer, the animals of the nativity scene, or the dove that symbolizes peace. Nowadays, and especially

in America, animals don't play quite as heavily into our Christmas celebration as they did long ago

and far away. For the average household, the connection between Christmas and animals usually

doesn't extend much beyond getting a gift for the family pet. But in Norway, for example,

it's traditional to leave out a sheaf of grain on Christmas morning for the birds. In England,

cattle were often wasailed and anointed with wine. And there are plenty of other myths, legends, superstitions,

and customs all having to do with Christmas and various furry, feathered, and scaly

friends. And unfortunately, not all of those customs were so pleasant for the animals involved.

Maybe it's because so many of our Christmas traditions are holdovers from earlier midwinter festivals,

which coincided with animal slaughter and even sacrifice.

One example was the traditional hunting of the Wren.

In parts of France, England, Ireland, and Wales, and either on Christmas

Day or St. Stephen's Day, the day after Christmas, those small birds known as wrens were

hunted, and groups of boys known as Wren boys would parade around with the dead birds hoping

to receive gratuities. Christmas hunts, also sometimes known as side hunts, also became forms of

competition and would continue well into the modern day. Originally it was a way of producing

fair for the holiday meal, but as you say, it had become definitely a competition. That's Jeff

LeBaron. My name is Jeff LeBaron. He's with the National Audubon Society, which began over a hundred

years ago in response

to overhunting of certain bird species.

The key thing that started the Audubon movement was the over-harvesting of colonial nesting

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