The yule tide season is here again. �I always get depressed around this time of year. �To be quite honest I miss Christmas, the tree, the carols, the stockings. �I converted from Christianity when I was 18 but I continued to celebrate it because my whole family did and only my mother, step father, and maybe my brother know I am pagan. �Considering my grandfather's heart condition I thought it best not to mention my beliefs to anyone else.

But my heart just hasn't been in it anymore. �I feel like I am lying to myself if I do celebrate Christmas. �After all, I am not a Christian anymore. �Now I live with Ben, and he doesn't celebrate Christmas either, but he doesn't celebrate any holidays except Halloween and New Years. �I miss having holidays, but I am not sure how you are suppose to celebrate Yule since I have no one to celebrate with and never knew anything but Christmas as a child.

I don't know how you are suppose to decorate for Yule. �Or what if any traditions you follow. �I don't know if there are any traditional songs. �I really know nothing about how to celebrate pagan holidays to be honest.  All I know is the Christian holidays I no longer celebrate, but I want to celebrate!  I want to have holiday traditions again.

Hi Indigo,

I've never been Christian, but I have always celebrated this time of the season. Remember that Christians adapted this holiday from pre-existing indigenous seasonal celebrations. In the New Testament, Jesus was actually born in the summer, not the winter.

What we are really celebrating this time of year is the rebirth of the sun--the beginning of the growing season. After the winter solstice, the days become longer and the season grows warmer. The winter solstice reminds us that even when things seem at their darklest and worst, it will change, and light will emerge again. There is no reason why you should keep from celebrating this time of year.

Indigo, follow me here: I celebrate the solstice, the promise of growing light, the celebration and realization of the feelings of hope and joy. We decorate our solstice tree with yellow and red ornaments to honor the sun who is now growing in strength. Big star on top. I hang a wreath on my door, a circle to honor the cycles, with an ornament symbolizing each of the elements in their respective place. We give gifts to excite the feelings of hope and joy within ourselves, consciously allowing ourselves to be open to hopeful, joyful optimism at this time of year. My holly baskets and decorations around the house make way for oak decor as the holly king succumbs to the oak king in pagan lore. I even take the kids out to see Santa �( ), because we all need to believe in the magical possibilities of receiving truly satisfying and exciting gifts in this life, and I feel the image and idea of Santa enforces a willingness to be open to receive as much good, positive excitement as one can imagine.

all n all, it looks pretty christmas-y around here.

may the promise of growing light fill you with feelings of hope and joy this season.

Loved your post, Real-Eyez.  I do the same thing.  I had a similiar conversation with somebody a couple of days ago.  I don't think christmas is necessarily a christian holiday anymore, or maybe it never was.  I have children (ok, they've outgrown santa), we still do the santa thing.  I try to do my decorating as green as possible, with as many fresh boughs as I can bring in.  (it's difficult to grow real holly this far north). And winter solstice??  A big dinner for that day.  I put in just as much effort for that celebration dinner as I do for the traditional turkey dinner.  Don't have time, energy to do both meals?  Pick a day, at least do one.  If you're missing the holidays, then celebrate the holidays.  Do something that you both can agree to.

I just read yesterday that the early Pagans wore red at this time of the year to encourage the sun to re-emerge and bring the warmer weather again.  Also, the main decor of the early believers (as far as "decking the halls") was holly, ivy and mistletoe, found in great abundance during the winter months.  These were evergreen and were considered magickal because they lived through the dead of Winter, thus encouraging the rebirth of the sun, again.   I found it rather interesting in regard to what we commonly decorate with around this time of year...the red and the "ever"green.  Basically, it is as Stacey says, when we decorate for Christmas, we are not actually decorating according to Christian faith and belief, we are decorating to bring the spring back.

Christians complain all the time about the secularization of Christmas.  You can do all the fun stuff, trees, presents and food, and not have to consider Jesus at all.  Christmas is so pagan in its origins, it's almost hard to celebrate a Christian religious holiday at this time of year.  I am much happier celebrating the good feeling of the season now that I am a Pagan than I ever was when I was a practicing Christian.   Just pick out the traditions you liked the most, and celebrate the return of the sun.  That's what I do, and I enjoy it more every year.

Over time, a good deal of my traditions have merged together. I was Christian for many years, and I have fond memories of my mother so excited about decorating around this time of the year. She brought out silvery garlands and pearls, golden bells, red ribbons, plastic evergreen boughs - and lots and lots of candles! For a while after she died I had a hard time feeling the excitement that she felt during this time of the year. But over time it has come back to me. The plastic boughs come in handy, esp. around people with evergreen allergies. But I do some of those same things now - and always top the tree with a glittery golden five-pointed star. It became a family tradition, and even though my family was never Pagan, that star tree topper suits me as well now as it did when I was a child.

My inlaws are Christian, and although I'm not, when I decorate and have them over for the holiday we all see different symbolism behind the decor. They see the virgin, the savior and the star, the three wise men with gifts of gold, frankensense, and myrrh, the boy king. And I see the depths of winter into which we descend, and the returning sun to light our way back. There's feasting, cider, gifts wrapped in some of the same colours as the decorations. The decorations are only a part of how I celebrate the holiday. Sometimes I don't know what I'll be doing until the last minute. A few yrs ago, when my father came up to visit, I woke up very early on Christmas morning, and sat by a window to watch the sunrise.

yeah that....what everyone else said...celebrate with all the things you love...if it is the evergreen trees the poinsettias...santa or cards or songs you love....or all of the above and more.
The important thing to remember is to enjoy yourself and share the good feelings with those you love.
I will be having the first Christmas without my kids (grown up and on their own )....I am happy and sad too...of course I will miss them....but they are doing well and starting lives of their own as it should be.

And hopefully WE will all be celebrating Yule together here....plastic wreaths, electric fireplaces, artificial trees and digital music will fill our wireless world  


blessings

eeyoresgirl

I see it as one day, when all celebrate together, yet seperate, on the inside, in their own special way. All the stuff on the outside, it's just not really that important.

It's all in the eye, and heart, of the beholder.

The Gap has a commercial that I love.  It's a bunch of enthusiastically dancing young people who say something like "Go Christmas, go Hannukkah, Go Kwanzaa,  Go Solstice, Go Classic tree, Go plastic tree, Go plant a tree, Go without a tree....." the song continues on from there and I can't remember all the words, but they wish us all a "Happy do whatever you wantukkah and a cheery good night" at the end.   Describes my feeling about this time of year perfectly.

Oh, I love that one, too, Rainbells!     We celebrate the theme of Hope in the Darkest Hour along with the return of the light.  We usually kindle all the candles we can find in the house and just focus on the spirit of this hope/return while all those candles light up the darkness at Solstice.

Indigo_Faerie, I can understand feeling depressed.  The early darkness can often be the cause of this.  We miss the sunshine and the longer days.  However, this theme of Hope in the Darkest Hour and the Return of the Light  can really help us learn the true meaning of that old phrase "darkest hour before the dawn"... or so we've found.

Just sharing what we do, here.  There are many ways to celebrate and to keep the true Spirit of the Season in our hearts!

Blessings,
RK )O(

I'm with Novia on this one.  

I think, for me this year, I will be celebrating the return of "life" and the end of the "frozen time", as this Yule will be the night before I leave Houston (and this marriage) for good.  It may be "scant" as all my stuff will be already in transit toward my destination, but I will save out the candles and goodies that I need to make it all right.  This will be a Yule to remember and one which will test my mental capabilities, but one which will, in turn, strengthen me.

I have a tradition that works in my family despite having Catholic, Pagan and Buddhist all in one family.   I make trimming the tree into a spell for the new year, although the rigid Catholic doesn't realize what's going on.  I cast a circle quietly and unobtrusively, usually when others are out getting the tree, or before they bring it in.   I have my candles lit, serve drinks and goodies, play quiet seasonal music, and keep the atmosphere peaceful and unhurried.  The smell of the fresh pine works as my incense.  Then we decorate using symbols of things we wish to manifest in the coming year and honor the memories of loved ones.  As we put pieces on the tree we sometimes say out loud what we wish for, but it can also be wished for privately.  It gives us all time to breathe and remember that this season is really about introspection and preparing ourselves for the coming year, tolerance and inclusion.  The Buddhist can wish for abstract stuff like world peace without violating his rule of detachment and non-materialsim.  The X-trians are just doing their thing, whatever.  It may not be "by the book" spellcasting, but it is enjoyed by all and everyone is aware of the change in the atmosphere as we all get beyond the hub-bub of the mundane.  We re-empower the bonds we have with each other and remember that no matter how different (and sometimes irritating) we all are, we are always there for each other when needed.

Indigo, celebrating anything is really about taking the time to be aware of the meaning behind the event.  You can celebrate everyday if you just take the time to get out of the rat race and remember you are a spiritual being in a physical body.  Then do what your Spirit wishes.  Happy Yule!

That is an excellent idea, Acasia!  What a wonderful way to "put it all together".  (You're so creative!)  I might have to "steal" that idea next year when I have Christmas in my own home with my family.