Hey, I’ve decided I want to celebrate Yule/Winter Solstice this year. I didn’t last year because I was still just discovering my beliefs, but this year I want to observe it in some way. My family is Christian and don’t know that I’m Pagan. I would love some pointers on how to celebrate, eg. decorations, rituals, etc.
Thanks, and Happy Holidays!
Hi!
I think you can just do whatever you feel like to do because i believe there are no "must do“s when it comes to your own practice
Maybe making some food(and maybe blessing them with positive energy) and sharing them with others can be a good idea? The magick can be done secretly if you want to, like "thinking“ intentions into the ingredients.
Sorry for my bad English, i’m not a native speaker:sob:
we do eat special food on winter solsice in our country and i really love cooking & kitchen magic.
hope it helps!
Merry Meet ChismeSoup,
In Celtic traditions the celebration of the transition to the Sun god is important. Things you can do if living with Christians is to put some decorations on the Christmas tree such as pinecones or other things from nature while having thoughts of your deep appreciation and respect for the earth that gives and sustains life. You can get one of those candles that sound like a log in the fire when they burn. Use it in place of a Yule log. Find a place you can watch the sunrise in honor of the Sun. Brightest Blessings!
I bought an eBook called “A guide to celebrating the 12 days of Yule” By Jenn Campus. It has lots of good ideas, and you can find what works for you 
Greetings ~
Well the good news is that you will find very quickly when you start to read into the practices of the Winter Solstice/Yule, that nearly every Christian practice of observing Christmas is actually pagan! (They love pirating all our stuff lol.) It’s possibly the easiest holiday to observe “under cover” out of all the major sabbaths, so you’re in luck!
Like Marcus here said, the core of celebrating Yule (and any of the solstices) is about honoring the sun through it’s pivotal phase. In winter, the sun’s strength has faded to it’s weakest, so at the winter solstice the practice of lighting candles and incorporating solar symbolism into any sort of practice - such as the use of dried oranges, amber, gold/brass, solar wheels (which resemble crosses) etc - is meant to help “bring back the sun” from it’s tomb, to return it to the living world to bring about the thaw and the spring. Of course it’s all symbolic, but that’s how the ancients viewed it.
Learning the pagan mindset is huge when you’re beginning any practice - so I suggest getting ebooks on the subject, it might be a way of reading them that wouldn’t be snooped on by anyone in your family.
Hope that helps! Happy solstice ~ 
I’m in a similar situation to the original poster @ChismeSoup . First time celebrating Yule. I adopted most of what The Pagan Grimoire suggested but then adapted for my own use. I don’t mind sharing here.
Day 1 (12/20/25) - Mother’s Night (picked up my Mom from the airport – odd how that worked out).
Day 2 - Winter Solstice - Hosted our annual Winter Solstice party for friends. Had about 25 people over and made them my own recipe of Wassail (hot cider, bourbon, tea, juice, spices)
Day 3 - Gryla and the Yule Lads - I interpreted this as a Mischief Night and invited four friends over for a small game night which ended up being fantastic fun. Yes, alcohol was involved.
Day 4 - Hospitality for guests - Took our family house guests out for a nice dinner and a show (the Cirque de Soleil Xmas show at the Fox in St. Louis – lots of fun).
Day 5 - The Hearth and the Home - Family watched Hallmark movies and played Hallmark Bingo together. (One of my Xmas gifts was a beer glass that says “Real Men Watch Hallmark Movies”.
Day 6 - Gift-Giving Day - Typical Christmas morning stuff.
Day 7 - Saturnalia - My family left and I got drunk as **** with friends. 
Day 8 - Day of Ancestors - Started a project I had been putting off of scanning in old photos of my ancestors.
Day 9 - Hogmanay - I interpreted this as Purge Day and archived old photos, emails, and electronic to-do’s in an attempt to wrap up “unfinished business”.
Day 10 - Odin’s Day / Wild Hunt - We had an awful storm the night before and the temperature dropped 50 degrees with 40MPH winds. If that doesn’t feel like the Wild Hunt, I don’t know what does. I built a fire in the fireplace as protection and left some carrots outside for Sleipnir. I’m saving a piece of the Yule log for next year.
Day 11 - Arsgang - This might have been my favorite suggestion from the Pagan Grimoire. I went for a walk in the woods alone on one of the coldest days of the year. It was a transformative experience and really cleared my head about a lot of things. I took an airplane bottle of Malibu Rum with me, poured some out in the middle of the woods and yelled “For Odin!” and then took a big swig. I felt different afterwards.
Day 12 - Volunteering and Service - I plan to work on my Rotary club’s web site.
In addition to all this, I discreetly setup a small shrine to Odin in our library with two candles such that it looked like a little display rather than a shrine. I’m not embarrassed about my pagan beliefs but I don’t feel comfortable sharing them with too many people. Ultimately, it does feel like “coming home” to me. I guess I would self-identify as Eclective Pagan at this point. I’m still figuring it out. But I know that Pagan Grimoire is going to be part of my journey.
I hope this helps somebody.
Tim in Illinois