Celebrating Yule/Winter Solstice

[TheYamiOfYawn]

So in amongst the festive Christmas threads, I've noticed a few references to Yule, so I was wondering what other people do to celebrate the solstice, and if/how you fit it around Christmas celebrations.

We just do Christmas but with no religious elements. For us it's about reconnecting with family and friends (not many are physically close, so it's a good focus point) and brightening up the mid of the dark depressive months.

middle not mid

We do presents on Christmas day, but we put up our tree and decorations on the day of the longest night. At bedtime, we put out figures under the tree of Mother Winter and the Holly King, and we set out a few battery tea lights to shine all night to call back the sun.

The next morning, the Holly King is gone, and the Oak King is there in his place, and he and Mother Winter are holding the new baby sun. At sunrise, we take the baby out to catch the first rays of the morning sun.

Yami that sounds lovely....I'm going to sound really thick now....what does it symbolise?

Yami that does sound lovely! May I ask whether you have figurines of MW, HK & OK or trees or symbols?

I haven't got round to doing anything proper for a few years, and you've inspired me! (Although I'm not sure I'd be awake for sunrise).

Is there a "Lazy Pagan Guide to Celebrating festivals" d'you think? :)

We started to do similar, only just last year; celebrating Yule and Solstice. So we'll be rather new to it compared to you, Yami. That does sound lovely, It's not too far removed from what we were doing, I don't think. We have King Winter, Mrs Thaw and so on. We did hand made presents for Yule and intend to do something similar this year.

I bought a kindle book about pagan festivals last year, but would also love recommendations for reading, and blogs.

Yami that sounds great! Where did you get pagan figures from?

We normally take a walk on Yule. We're lucky enough to have a small stone circle within walking distance, so we go there and leave an offering if the snow isn't too bad.

But, tbh, Yule is often swept over in the run up to christmas, which is something I'd like to change. We walk pretty much every day, so a walk doesn't really stand out. It's difficult to strike a balance, I want our dds to have an awareness of the seasons and my religion without bringing them up to be a pagan, iyswim.

We celebrate christmas with presents, tree, meal and so on. No church, obviously (unless we're with dmil when we go sometimes with her - I'm not trying to ignore other relative's faiths), and the whole thing's more focused around celebrating our family and Father Christmas. Dd1 is aware of the nativity story, but as a story.

we take part in the burning of the clocks celebration of the Solstice.

We do a small celebration for Yule. Either me, DH and DS or sometimes my closest friend and her DH join us.

Mostly the same stuff as you'd do at Xmas, but we make sure to get a chocolate log and light candles to symbolise the return of the sun.

Hoping to do more as DS gets older.

We're celebrating the Norse version of Yule, so we'll have 12 days of presents, there are different things for each day - can't remember as it's DH's thing really but there's a Mother's Day and we're going to have a candle-lit Feast. Only been doing it since last year, we have sacks for presents from Odin! I'm atheist and enjoy the stories and the change from the same old Christmas stuff. DH is Asatruan and has got activities for the kids to do, a drinking horn to do a toast with, all kinds of stuff.