I am sitting here with a glass of eggnog topped with freshly grated nutmeg. So, you can probably guess that I like this holiday. There are plenty of reasons to like it. First of all, whether we're in Central Europe or in Oregon when the time comes, the people around us are celebrating too. That comes with the handy bonus of some days off work, which are often sorely lacking during other Pagan Sabbats. The days off don’t exactly coincide with the Solstice but they still help out, especially if you celebrate the Twelve Days of Yule in one way or another.

The other reason I like Yule is the feeling of magic and wonder that seems to permeate the natural world during this season. I was always uncomfortable with secular Christmas and the commercialization of the holiday, even as a teenager. But I haven't let that stop me from absorbing the vital energy of the sun's return.

Still, not everyone in our family is quite so enthusiastic. When I told my Czech husband that there are twelve days of Pagan Yule he was aghast, saying he can barely handle one holiday. His mother gets very stressed over Christmas and he still has unresolved anxiety around the holidays. I rushed to reassure him. One thing I like about spreading it out is that there is no one big blow-out celebration and thus no one moment when everything has to be perfect or else it is all ruined. There is something, often a minor thing, special each day and a lot of it is flexible. Also children can get several gifts but only one at a time, which cuts down on the extremes of over-excitement as well as the greedy consumerism. Philosophically, the focus of this Sabbat should be on mystery and magic (spelled any which way), so secrets around gifts are quite called for as are fables about jolly old men arriving in the middle of the night and other things of wonder.

So, here goes.

Crafts and Cooking

Most years, I go out on a crisp, clear day to gather twigs from bare trees to make branch candles. You take a glass or clear jar and hot glue or even just rubber-band a neat row of twigs around the outside of the glass. If you use rubber bands, you might have to cover them with pretty yarn to make it more decorative. Then, you put a candle inside and you have a beautiful candleholder that can be used in the run-up to Yule to symbolize the hidden light of the sun dwelling in the womb of nature.

Next, I fix up my Czech advent wreath turned alter piece for the elements. In the Czech Republic people put a ceramic wreath accented with twigs of evergreen on their table. The wreath has four candle holders on it and four red candles are placed in these. Then, for four weeks before Christmas, they light candles – one on the first Sunday, two on the second and so on. It occurred to me this is a perfect stand for four elements candles. So, I decorate ours in a similar way and light each candle in honor of one of the elements, calling for the aid of elements in bringing the light and warmth of the sun back to us. All this requires for decoration is a few sprigs of fir and juniper from our trees and some dazzling orange suns that I cut out of tangerine peels.

I also make a very simple evergreen wreath for our door and the children make paper snowflakes for the windows. We make ice candles closer to Yule, so that they can be used on Solstice night. You do this by freezing a bowl or plastic container of water in the freezer with a tin can positioned in the middle of it, so that when you take it out and remove the bowl and the can, you have a bowl of ice with a depression in the middle for a candle. Again, this is a symbol of the sun being reborn in cold and ice.

This year we have already made salt dough ornaments and painted them, although this is really the only major craft I have planned with the kids, other than lots of cookies. I will try to make pinwheel cookies. I already have some gingerbread dough in the freezer and I’ll make sugar cookie dough, so we’ll make gingerbread figures and cookies in the shapes of suns, stars and Yule trees. And I will make our annual, much anticipated pan of decadent cinnamon rolls.

The most important meal of the holiday comes on the eve of the Solstice for us. That is when we traditionally make round dishes. Usually we try to stick to a theme of the sun and the night sky. So, I usually make shepherd's pie with mashed potatoes on top. I liberally mix in tumeric powder with the mashed potatoes, which is tasty, healthy and handy for making the pie look like the sun. I also make blueberry or huckleberry pie for desert and put moon and star cookies on top to make a night sky. There is always a large round dish of baked pumpkin or winter squash with brown sugar and butter on top. This is simple and uses our most successful home harvest crop.

Songs

Yule is good when it comes to songs but difficult at the same time. One of the hardest things about not really being able to relate to Christmas for me is that for years I have struggled with the fact that I like Christmas carols. I even like some of the overtly religious ones. For one thing, they have wonderful tunes and for another thing, they speak to some primal instinct for celebration in the season. Even the texts of the religious ones evoke the very spirit of wonder and comfort at the magical rebirth of light and hope that is at the heart of Yule. Certainly, some of the tunes of these songs predate Christianity, though we don’t always know for certain which ones.

One that we do know is Pagan for sure is:

Deck the Halls

Deck the halls with bows of holly

Fa la la la la la la la la

‘Tis the season to be jolly

Fa la la la la la la la la

Don ye now your gay apparel

Fa la la la la la la la la

Join the ancient Yuletide carol

Fa la la la la la la la la

See the blazing Yule before us

Fa la la la la la la la la

Strike the harp and join the chorus

Fa la la la la la la la la

Follow me in merry measure

Fa la la la la la la la la

While I tell of Yuletide treasure

Fa la la la la la la la la

Fast away the old year passes

Fa la la la la la la la la

Hail the new, ye lads and lasses

Fa la la la la la la la la

Sing we joyous all together

Fa la la la la la la la la

Heedless of the wind and weather

Fa la la la la la la la la

And here are some others with common tunes intact but with words that have been adapted by modern neo-Pagans. If anyone is upset by Pagans co-opting Christian songs for the holiday, one might point out that the Christians first co-opted the whole holiday from the Pagans of long ago, so it is justice of a sort.

Silent Night

Silent night, solstice night

All is calm, all is bright

Nature slumbers in forest and glen

‘Til in springtime she wakens again

Sleeping spirits grow strong!

Silent night, solstice night

Silver moon, shining bright

Snow blankets the sleeping Earth

Yule fires herald the sun’s rebirth

Hark, the light is reborn!

Silent night, solstice night

Quiet rest ‘til the light

Turning ever the rolling wheel

Brings the winter to comfort and heal.

Rest your spirit in peace!

Oh, Come All Ye Kindred

Gather round the Yule Fire

Oh, come ye, oh, come ye,

To call the Sun.

Fires within us

Call the Fire above us.

Oh, come let us rejoice now.

Oh, come let us rejoice now

For the reborn Sun.

Yea, Sun, we greet Thee!

Born again at Yuletide!

Oh, Yule fires, Oh, trees bright

Are lighted for Thee!

Come and behold it

Light this day returns to us.

Oh, come let us rekindle.

The returning sun.

Finally, here is an original Yule song that came more or less unbidden into my head. The words can be sung to either Good King Wenceslas or Amazing Grace, depending on your mood.

Promised Hope

(To the tune of Good King Wenceslas)

O, promised hope that we hold dear

As days grow dark and cold.

All people wait this time of year

As ancient tales are told.

Father Sun departs the Earth.

The Goddess holds her child.

So, here we gather by the hearth,

While winter storms grow wild.

In darkest night, the world so chill,

We watch twelve days of Yule

To see the sun returning still

To herald the earth’s renewal.

Oh, Solstice Tree

Oh, Solstice tree

How lovely are your branches.

Ever green through winter days.

Reminding us of old time ways.

Oh, Solstice tree

How lovely are your branches.

Now sparkling with dazzling light

You bring us joy and delight.

Any other verses anyone?

The Twelve Days

This year, because we are in Eastern Oregon in the mountains, we will be able to go out and pick a little tree that needs thinning. We'll do that this weekend. We will then be set for the great celebrations to begin. This year I’m going to take a crack at some sort of celebration for each of the twelve days of Yule.

On the first night of Yule – that is for us the evening of the 20th of December – we will have a special dinner to honor both the sun and the “womb of the night” that holds the sun on Solstice night with round dishes, probably a round casserole, as well as baked pumpkin and tangerines for the sun and huckleberry pie with stars cut out of dough on top for goddess of the night. We will light our ice and branch candles and as many others as we want, to keep vigil on the longest night. We won’t leave them lit though, as fire is too much of a hazard here. Instead we will bank the fire to last. We’ll light the first of twelve candles and say something we wish for more of in ourselves during the next year. Each evening we will light one more of the twelve candles and tell the children what they symbolize. With somewhat older children one could say something one appreciates about each daily theme with the lighting of the new candle. Then, we will sing and put the children to bed.

In the morning on the 21st, I will wake up the children before dawn and get us all dressed to go outside. We’ll go out to the boulder where our grandmother's ashes were scattered and drum and sing to welcome the reborn sun. I will have to pay attention to when exactly dawn comes in order to keep the children from standing too long in the cold.

The first day of Yule has an outward focus of the sun and an inward focus on taking care of yourself. I think I may be able to bake my favorite cinnamon rolls on this day. I will also find some quiet time to do an annual Tarot reading that I do on the Winter Solstice. It is made up of a circle of twelve cards, each representing a month of the coming year, and one central card. It is the only truly predictive reading that I use.

The 22nd, the second day of Yule, is dedicated to prosperity and possessions. So, this is a logical time for giving and receiving, which is handy because the first day of Yule is usually hectic enough without adding gifts. The evening before the children will put cookies by the hearth and say a special sun blessing. They will wake up to a present under the tree from Santa Claus and stockings full of good things. In this sense Santa Claus is the spirit of the old year and the old sun, he is an old man with a long white beard, dressed in the warm red of an old fire. We’ll also have a special family meal and give thanks for all that we had or gained in the old year.

On the 23rd, we will find time to go for a walk and sing carols. The third day of Yule is dedicated to communication and voice, thus singing.

The fourth day is dedicated to the home, so we usually stay home and make a special Czech holiday dinner of carp and potato salad and there will be another gift under the tree in the evening for the children. It is handy that the 24th is a state holiday here. This time the gift is brought by the newborn Baby Sun (a Pagan take on the atheist Czech tradition that has it that a magical spirit called, oddly enough for the Czech anti-thiests, “Little baby Jesus” sneaks into the living room to leave gifts while the family is somewhere else in the house). One of the adults usually distracts the children in another room while the other puts out the gifts, rings a small bell and jumps into the bathroom to pretend that he or she wasn’t actually there when Baby Sun showed up.

On the 25th, we often bake star-shaped gingerbread cookies that are made to stack one on top another to form trees. These we can decorate with white frosting and sparkles like Yule trees. We will make enough to take with us to the cousins the next day. This fifth day of Yule is dedicated to play and creativity.

The sixth day of Yule is dedicated to health. If we were at home in the Czech Republic, we could have a sauna on this day. Instead we'll soak in my mother's hot tub under the pine and apple trees.

The seventh day is dedicated to love relationships. This is the first time my husband and I have been apart at this time of year in many years. Usually, we are visiting the relatives on Dec. 27th and we seize this rare opportunity to have babysitters and go on a date – the only date we get in a year without kids. It isn't much, just a quiet walk and a little while in a café in the picturesque little town of Trebon, but it is better than nothing.

The eighth day of Yule is dedicated to change and cycles and so it is a particularly good day for a ritual around something that needs change. It is also a time to honor the natural cycles of rebirth in some way. On this day we usually stage a change-of-the-guard pillow fight with the kids. This is where the children, as symbols of the new sun, pummel the parents, symbols of the old sun, with pillows and eventually “win” by exhausting them.

The ninth day of Yule is about learning, so we will surely read some of the Yule stories in the book Circle Round on this day and perhaps have some fun board games as a family. This is also Dec. 29, which is a day on which we honor our children’s birth families, because it is the birthday of one of their birth mothers. We will light a special candle.

The tenth day of Yule is dedicated to career and life path. For older children this would be a good day to play the game of life, dress up as various professions or have a discussion about what they want to do with their life path. We will probably read picture books about different professions and try to act them out. I will also do a ritual for myself around figuring out my own life path.

The eleventh day of Yule is for friendships and community. It is also New Year’s eve, so it is a good time to get together with a circle of friends that is broader than family. It is also a good day to discuss with children and decide something to do to help the community or other people in the world during the coming year, a special kind of New Year’s resolution. We will also visit an elderly neighbor on the day its self.

The final, twelfth day of Yule is dedicated to dreams, the subconscious and mysteries. If one has not overindulged too much on New Year’s night interesting dreams might come. It is a good time for introspective writing. I will try to make a mystery treasure hunt inside the house for the children to find a final treat of the season on New Years day. One Czech tradition we have adopted is that we always eat lentils (a symbol of prosperity) on New Years day (the twelfth day of Yule) in order to ensure abundance in the coming year.

That is the basic idea of our holiday traditions. We get a lot done without making any of it particularly stressful. I hope this year we will be able to integrate it with having a lot of American cousins around as well.