Celebrating Yule Winter Solstice

The pagan sabbat Yule, is on December 21, 2021 this year in the Northern Hemisphere. This is the Winter Solstice, which is the shortest day and longest night on the Wheel of the Year. After this day the sunlight will grow and the days will be a bit lighter and longer each day until Ostara, the Spring Equinox.

Yule celebrates the sun returning and the hope of Spring to come after the cold winter months. The harvests are complete and this is now a time of rest and introspection.

You can celebrate Yule by greeting the sun at sunrise on the Winter Solstice. This is a great time to connect with nature as the sun rises. You can have a simple outdoor ritual as well honoring the sun’s return and growth going forward.

This sabbat Yule, is a time to reflect on hope, renewal, and going inward for reflection during the winter season.

Decorate a Yule pine tree to bring the winter season and the hopeful, renewal energy of evergreens into your home. Creating handmade, natural decorations and ornaments for your tree are a wonderful, creative activity. Some symbols and items to decorate with include the sun, reindeer, deer, cardinals, snowflakes, bells, stars, holly leaves and berries, ivy, mistletoe, cinnamon sticks, pinecones, citrus fruit, cloves, and hazelnuts. Colors for Yule are red, green, white, gold, and silver. You can also make a wreath of evergreens to hang in your home and symbolize the Wheel of the Year. These symbols and items can also decorate your Yule altar.

This is also a lovely time to burn candles and also candle making to add craftiness to your Yule celebration. Candles make great Yule gifts as well.

Exchanging Yule gifts, especially handmade, is a lovely way to connect with your fellow pagan friends, family, and community. Other gift ideas are handmade ornaments and incense. Scents for this Yule season are cinnamon, ginger, cloves, pine, spruce, vanilla, citrus, cedar, bayberry, frankincense, and myrrh.

This is also a time to donate to charities meaningful to you including donating food and warm clothes for winter locally.

Creatively spending time on Yule drawing, painting, or crafting, is another way to celebrate the Yule sabbat. Make your art or craft part of your Yule ritual, creating at sunrise. You could also stay up on the eve of the Winter Solstice and work on your creations. Light a candle and connect to the energy of hope and renewal the sun brings as you create.

If you enjoy baking, gingerbread is a delicious treat to make for your Yule celebration. You can also bake sugar cookies in Yule symbol shapes such as the sun, bells, stars, pine trees, and reindeer to frost and decorate. A decorated Yule log cake is traditional to make.

For drink wassail spiced apple cider is a celebratory, warming Yule drink. Eggnog is also delicious Yule drink to make.

However you celebrate Yule Winter Solstice, may it be filled with joy, hope, and renewal of the sun’s return this winter season.