How do you celebrate Yule?

[Emeryth]

Hey everybody

I was just thinking about what I'll be doing this year for Yule and I got curious about how other people will be celebrating it, that is of course if they celebrate it at all, I realize everyone has their own holidays. Soooo! How do you celebrate Yule, and if you do not, Do you celebrate something else instead?

Personally I just decorate my house and put up a tree which I also decorate. I like to do arts and crafts with my older two sons that relate to the season and on the morning of the solstice we exchange gifts. That evening I usually do a ritual. But that is about it. I do lots of baking but, yeah that's it....What does everyone else do?

[Valdi]

Soooo! How do you celebrate Yule, and if you do not, Do you celebrate something else instead?

We celebrate the secular Christmas. We put up a mini-tree (2 feet; 60cm) and decorate it. Decorate the room a little bit for the little ones, watch them open their presents, visit family if we feel like it -- if we do, usually we have dinner there. Then, go home, watch some old TV programmes like Muppet's Christmas Carol, Nightmare Before Christmas, Hogfather, maybe Doctor Who if it's on...

No Santa, no Nativity Scene (we did the first year we moved in, even though we're not Christian), nothing like that.

I'd like to do a Heathen Yule festival, but I'm not entirely sure how to do that.

[Rowanfox]

Hey everybody

I was just thinking about what I'll be doing this year for Yule and I got curious about how other people will be celebrating it, that is of course if they celebrate it at all,

The usual secular stuff, tree, decorations, lights. On the actual solstice we light a yule log in the outdoor fireplace at sunset (or toss it on the fire that is already burning). Traditionally we would do a short circle outside, wassail the trees, then spend the night going in and out to tend the fire and keep it burning until sunrise. Getting on in years so we now let the fire burn out as we watch from inside, and light a "flameless" candle and leave it on all night to represent the light. Still get up at sunrise to do a morning ritual, but it is not that difficult when the sun is rising at 8:00 AM! LOL Xmas eve spent with the inlaws, Xmas day with my extended family, all sucular and about getting together with the 3 Fs (family, friends and food)

[drekfletch]

I was just thinking about what I'll be doing this year for Yule and I got curious about how other people will be celebrating it, that is of course if they celebrate it at all, I realize everyone has their own holidays. Soooo! How do you celebrate Yule, and if you do not, Do you celebrate something else instead?

My family does the secular Christmas thing on the 25th, but with less focus on the actual gifts part. I observe something else instead. In my endeavor to include the gods in my regular celebrations, I've decided to make NewYears my 'winter holiday.'

NewYears will in theory (I'm essentially non-practicing) be a two day event. Dec 30th becomes the day of the death of the year. This becomes a religious event because NewYears is the end of the Holiday season, and the start of the 3.5mo long Winter season. I view it as the New Year as opposed to Samhain/Halloween or my Birthday. (In one of the archives, there was a thread where personal NewYears were discussed.)

The eve is celebrated either as quiet mourning for or boisterous celebration of the past year, or both, depending on the celebrant. As a day of death, it is sacred to Haides and Persephone. In my head, instead of counting down to midnight, a room would get quieter, waiting for the moment. The clock strikes 12 and people wail in mourning for the lost year and in a birth-cry of the new year. There's a bit about unbinding the community in there somewhere, but I don't know if it's staying.

Next day is a day of rest/purification leading up to the feast of birth/rejoining of community, with the feast cementing our connections with each other.

[Waterfall]

I was just thinking about what I'll be doing this year for Yule and I got curious about how other people will be celebrating it, that is of course if they celebrate it at all, I realize everyone has their own holidays. Soooo! How do you celebrate Yule, and if you do not, Do you celebrate something else instead?

I sit around a decorated Brugmansia tree with two or three friends drinking vodka. We usually do this on or near the solstice since we usually end up spending the 25th with out families pretending we still care about the Christian holiday since we're all rather closeted about our actual beliefs. I also make dinner, which is whatever random things we decide to make, even if they don't go together. Like mashed potatoes, eggplant parmesan, and "beef" stir fry.

Sometimes we celebrate Festivus at the same time and do an Airing of Grievances. Usually after we've gone through a bottle of vodka. Although it usually ends up in someone going off on an angry rant about something totally unrelated. I think we also once ended up playing truth or dare.

[Juniperberry]

Hey everybody

I was just thinking about what I'll be doing this year for Yule and I got curious about how other people will be celebrating it, that is of course if they celebrate it at all, I realize everyone has their own holidays. Soooo! How do you celebrate Yule, and if you do not, Do you celebrate something else instead?

Personally I just decorate my house and put up a tree which I also decorate. I like to do arts and crafts with my older two sons that relate to the season and on the morning of the solstice we exchange gifts. That evening I usually do a ritual. But that is about it. I do lots of baking but, yeah that's it....What does everyone else do?

Yule for me doesn't have any really special spiritual significance (like the god dying etc) other than a time to party with friends and family, so we have the normal Christmas celebrations and usually host a fairly large party. My husband is German so we also do St. Nicks day.

I do leave oats out for Sleipnir, bake boar shaped cookies for Freyr, and other individual offerings. This year I'm going to follow the custom of the twelfth night cakes...Mainly I just love Yule for all of the gift giving and the market always has nuts and breads and treats out that I want to give.

[sparrow]

How do you celebrate Yule, and if you do not, Do you celebrate something else instead?

I celebrate the winter solstice, so the date and time change pretty much every year. We usually stay up all night the night before, then go out before dawn to watch the sun rise. We exchange a few gifts either at the time of the solstice (this year I think it's at 5:30 on the 22nd) or as soon as the sun peeks over the horizon.

We decorate with home made wreaths and swags (don't have a place for a tree yet). We usually watch some old Christmas movies and listen to Christmas music, because it's nostalgic and I can't help myself.

We also usually donate to a local charity or do something for the community, and we make a point to go for a hike or a walk to do a little grounding and appreciate nature. The night before I always meditate and get really introspective, and my partner and I usually abstain from our respective technological devices (ha!) and talk a lot about our goals for the coming year. (As much as everyone tells me that Samhain is the new year, I can't get over thinking of the solstice that way).

All in all, to me it is about hope (since the sun is coming back and winters are difficult for me) and about quietly renewing my connection to the earth, the community, the people I love, and myself.

[sparrow]

Sometimes we celebrate Festivus at the same time and do an Airing of Grievances. Usually after we've gone through a bottle of vodka. Although it usually ends up in someone going off on an angry rant about something totally unrelated. I think we also once ended up playing truth or dare.

This sounds hilarious and amazing. I must try this at some point.

[stephyjh]

This sounds hilarious and amazing. I must try this at some point.

I an so suggesting it to my roommate.

[SunflowerP]

(this year I think it's at 5:30 on the 22nd)

<nod> 0530 on the 22nd UT - so 2330 on the 21st for me, MST, and if I'm putting bits of info together right, you're either on PST so it'd be 2230 on the 21st, or on EST so it'd be 0130 on the 22nd. (And if I'm putting bits together wrong, it's because there've been a flock of Sparrows on TC.)

Which reminds me about my answer to the OP: for the last several years, my central Yule celebration has been Up All Night: A Technopagan Winter Solstice here on TC (it should be easy to find the threads on the archive board). That'll presumably take place this year on the night of the 21st, though I'll defer on the final decision to Altair, who usually runs it - but it's a certainty that it'll happen, because if Altair can't run it for whatever reason (this year, or any year) I will.

Sunflower