Christmas in Medieval St Albans

Christmas in Medieval St Albans is a guided walk through the city's medieval streets, starting from St Albans Museum + Gallery on Sunday 20 December. It's run by the St Albans Tour Guides, so you'll have someone who knows the city's history leading the way rather than just a map and a set of directions.

The walk is built around the twelve days of licensed 'misrule', that stretch of the medieval calendar when the social order was turned on its head and revelry became the only law. It's a particular slice of the city's past that doesn't usually get much airtime, and the tour works it back into view by painting the streets as they would have looked during those days: homes and churches bedecked in greenery, and the air scented with spiced wine and gingerbread.

As you walk, the guides bring in the sights and sounds of the season—the feasting, the carolling, the dancing and the games. They describe a world of acrobats, puppeteers, pipers and singers filling the streets, the kind of festive chaos that would have been the norm for the city centuries ago. It's less of a dry history lesson and more of a reconstruction of what Christmas actually felt like in medieval St Albans, with the tour following the route and the stories that defined the period.

The walk runs from 11:00 to 12:30, so it's a morning thing that doesn't take up your whole day. It starts and finishes at St Albans Museum + Gallery, and you'll need to book your tickets in advance.