How I'm celebrating Yule this year and how you can too

The 12 days of Yule starts today (the 20th of June) at sundown! So, here’s how I’m celebrating, and some other ways you can celebrate too. This will be a long post so make a cup of tea or your beverage of choice, and let’s get into it.

How am I celebrating it?

Honouring the women in my family that came before me

Starting on Friday, the 20th of June, I’ll be honouring my female ancestors through lighting candles, and connecting with them through meditation. As I am very disconnected from my heritage, I am using this time as an opportunity to reconnect. This is also a great time to clean and prepare the house for guests (human or otherwise)!

Creating a yule alter

I love my alters; I love the ritual of doing research, finding items needed from what I already own, and the physical act of setting it up. Setting up an alter is a ritual in its own right for me, so here is how I’m preparing mine

I am decorating with bells, candles, and a yule log. The colours being used are green, red, silver, and gold. Food I’ll include as offerings include dried fruit and nuts, and cookies. I’ll make a yule herb blend using cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, and sage, and dedicate my alter to the sun and my female ancestors.

Yule rituals

This yule I am focusing on a couple of different rituals, concentrating on cleansing and renewal. I’ll be burning my yule log, doing candle magick, meditating to connect with ancestors, and a releasing ritual.

Yule log

Burning a yule log and keeping the ashes for use in healing, protection, and abundance spells. Although for me I have to do it in a fireproof dish so I will be using sticks I’ve foraged (ones that are safe to burn) and dressing the surrounding area with other bits I pick up on my winter solstice nature walk.

Nature walk

It’s winter, and when the winter solstice is celebrated in the northern hemisphere, it’s usually snowing. So why would I go for a walk? The answer is simple: no matter the season, it is always encouraged to get out in nature to celebrate a sabbat[JD1] , because every sabbat is about the changing of seasons and you can’t very well feel the changing of seasons while you’re rugged up inside. So, I will be going on nature walks, as much as my body allows, and I’ll be collecting things to decorate my yule log and the rest of the house with.

Tarot reading

I love doing a sabbat tarot reading, and this sabbat has 12 days worth! I will do a Yule specific reading on the day of the winter solstice, and for 12 days after to represent the 12 months in the year.

Using candlelight as much as I can over the 12 days of yule

This is to help with warmth, honouring ancestors, and there’s something more magickal about doing spells under candlelight than using ceiling lights.

Spend time doing nothing with friends and family

There is a Danish and Norwegian word - hygge (pronounced hoo-ga) - which is the act of doing nothing and being cozy with loved ones while doing it. Just enjoying your time together, reading, sitting by a fire, and just being comfortable. I absolutely love this… it’s not just a word, it’s not just a feeling, it’s so much more. I will be doubling down on my hygge time and inviting my friends to join me.

Other ways to celebrate?

Journaling

The winter solstice is a great time for reflection, and what better way to do that than going through your journals from the last year? If you don’t have any, start some for the next winter solstice! You can have a single journal that you put everything in, or you can have multiple! For example, a dream journal, tarot journal, and a daily journal.

How to decorate

Oranges are thought to represent the sun due to it being round and bright orange. You can make dried orange slice garlands to decorate, or use whole oranges in spell work, pushing your intentions into it with cloves, creating a pomander.

Using an evergreen tree as your yule tree, decorate with natural and baked goods to represent your goals for the coming winter. The colours of yule are also the colours of Christmas: red, green, silver, and gold.

Use holly and mistletoe around your house. Holly was traditionally brought into the house as a symbol of protection and hope, while mistletoe symbolises fertility, luck, and peace.

Community

Christmas carolling came from the Norse celebration of wassailing. People would go to the orchards dressed up brightly and sing to the trees, drinking wassail (a warm, spiced alcoholic drink) and pouring it on the trees roots. They would also perform plays and just be generally loud to help word off evil spirits.

Community warms the spirit, so what better way to get warm during winter than having a grand feast to bring in that warmth to your soul and home.

Gift giving is another tradition appropriated by Christianity. There is a few different gift giving traditions: elves, the Christmas witch, even the iconic mushroom - amanita muscari - was believed to give shamans the ability to travel to the spirit world and return with the gift of knowledge. The act of gift giving itself is also a way to warm your soul through generosity and the love of family and friends.

I hope this has given you some ideas on ways to celebrate the winter solstice! Now to get ready for the 12-day celebration.

Althea xx