Christmas stamps, as featured on this year’s COUNTRY LIFE Advent calendar cover, are a cherished annual event– but how did they become one? Emma Hughes investigates

The Bohemian King Wenceslas really was good, but his reward for gracious piety was not, discovers Ian Morton

LET me state at the outset that I am not a nosy-parker, not a busybody and definitely not in the habit of opening other people’s post. But one December, it started. I found it on the hall mat with my

Held in high esteem and lavished with furs, velvet and precious stones, young male choristers-turned-bishops were all the rage at Christmas in the Middle Ages, says Matthew Dennison

The search for the mythical relic unites the two strongest currents of European spirituality: Christianity and the legends of Arthur and his knights

Jolly frock-coated robins, majestic geese and arboreal partridges make for both literal and symbolic centrepieces at Christmas, says Matthew Dennison, as he revels in the cultural history of the season’s feathered fowl and game