Tales from the Green Valley - December

Five experts - historians and archaeologists - are trying to run a Welsh hill farm for twelve months, as it would have been in the reign of James I. December, their fourth month on the farm, means turning the clock back 400 years to celebrate Christmas in 17th-century style. They have to cut their own giant yule log, the centrepiece of period festivities, deck the place out with traditional decorations and celebrate with contemporary tipples. Getting ready for the Christmas day feast, it is all hands on deck cooking up a range of recipes from the age of Shakespeare, like mince pies with real meat in them. Through all this they have got to find time to tend the livestock, make some winter clothes, and build a period wood store - all using tools and materials that would have been available in the year 1620.