The fire burns bright on a cold midwinter night, holidays approaching with the Yule log in the fridge. Wait a log in the fridge? Nowadays, in America or France, a “Yule log” or “Büche de noël” is a dessert or pudding made of chocolate sponge cake rolled with cream and covered in a chocolate icing to mimic the insides and look of a traditional log. But how did this start? Back in the 1600s is our first recording of a Yule log, from Nordic and pagan traditions. Yule is the name of the winter solstice. The holiday before Christmas came about, usually marked today as December 21 to early January. Those days are considered the “12 days of Yule” from which Christmas created the 12 days of Christmas. In those 12 days, a large log, the original Yule log, is burned every night with other pieces of wood to warm the home. The ashes of the Yule log would be saved for the spring planting for the ashes were said to be good for the plants as long as they weren’t thrown on the day of Yule. Similar traditions are found in the United Kingdom, France and other European countries. Instead, they celebrated Christmas and called it a Christmas log instead of a Yule log. Nowadays, with the localization of central heating in most homes, the Yule log has gone out of fashion and can be replaced with its edible counterpart. Made of a chocolate sponge roll cake with cream and covered in chocolate to imitate a real log’s bark. Though the Yule log has gone out of fashion and changed it is still prevalent in the history of the holidays.