Yule is such an interesting holiday! In some countries, it’s now synonymous with Christmas, and depending on who is practicing, it either falls at the Winter Solstice (it seems we have Robert Graves to thank for this) or in January, if you’re following the Eddas.
I’d love to know how you’re celebrating Yule this year and when you’re celebrating it!
I celebrate it a combination of the old Norse Way and Scandinavian way. We don’t have Christmas but I do give my children homemade gifts and we light a fire in our firepit. We do have a tree which we decorate with items from our ancestors. We call it a remembrance tree. The tree which is associated with Christmas was stolen from the Norse Pagans.
I try to have it over the course of a few weeks surrounding the solstice, as a rest period rather than one big day. Of course the day itself is important, but any excuse not to rush around like crazy I’ll take it😅 so it’s 10dec-7Jan usually. My birthday is 9dec and my mother’s the 8th of January, so it creates a nice celebratory “frame”.
Ideally I have holiday gifts finished before December so I’m not rushing around as Yule/xmas arrives. This opens up my time and headspace for things I actually want to do for celebration itself, like seasonal crafts and baking, simmer pots, all the evergreens🌲
I make wreaths for friends with the holly and ivy that grows in abundance around me. I bring in and decorate a pine tree, I give gifts and eat heartily. As far as I’m concerned Christmas is Yule: Holly, ivy, mistletoe, pine, fires, lights, feasts, parties, singing, ghost stories - come on?! It’s just what we’ve been doing for ever in the middle of winter.