The darkest night of the year
 

Both daughters have indicated to me they wish their families to celebrate winter Solstice this year instead of Christmas.

Perfectly fine with me, except . . .

--how does one actually celebrate solstice?

--I told them I still wish to give gifts (which seems perfectly fine to them), but I'm unsure how to approach this with all the grandchildren.

Any ideas/advice on how to switch over to this? Since Christmas is so all-pervasive?

(there's a big plus in this since it's going to piss of the Ex royally, lol!)

Elspode should be all over this one.

But I believe many of the traditions used at Christmas are actually pagan solstice traditions. The tree for example.

right. greenery, the yule log, the symbolism of the light. I know the ideas; I guess it's the practical stuff I'm wondering about.

We're not overly baby-jesus-in-the-manger anyway, but is Santa Claus still kosher? *koff*

So many Christmas traditions are borrowed from pagan roots that you should find it pretty easy.

For example, bringing greenery into the house (holly, mistletoe, "Christmas" trees), the giving of gifts, coins, food. Candles and incense are a bit thing - it's a festival of light. You are encouraging the sun to come back by your example.

Get your guests to bring certain meaningful things across your threshold. Bread for life, salt for savour, candy for a sweet life, wine for celebration etc. You can also scatter meaningful herbs on your doorstep so that they are also receiving a blessing. Again - if you have the chance of an open fire you can throw in pinches of herbs and spices tht have special meaning to you.

I'd recommend Christmas Crackers just because they are brightly coloured and have their own symbolism. When you pull them, the noise they make will scare off evil spirits as well as deliver you a gift.

Singing is another great thing to get into the habit of. Might be trickier finding songs than it is carols, but if you can encourage your daughters to practice a song to sing to you, it would be a wonderful gift. If you're not a singing family perhaps you could write a special verse to recite.

Food-wise, just choose what you enjoy - but I would suggest having at least one symbolic thing. Whether that's an alcohol soaked pudding, something in a ring (for the circle of life) or an egg based dessert - you'll know what you like. You can even just bake a family favourite and call it a symbolic name.

The great thing is, you can make your own traditions. I mean, sure, you can at Christmas too, but you are probably tied to what your family did before you.

ETA - not Santa Claus, Father Christmas. He's definitely pagan.

some great ideas, SG, thanks!

Connected to Christianity, but surely with "pagan" roots and symbolic of the returning light, are the Santa Lucia celebrations in Sweden. (just google Lucia sweden) to get an impression and background info.

There are actually quite a few "Christmas" carols that have no mention of Christmas or religion in them, they are just about Winter.

Jingle Bells (Which actually originated as a song about Thanksgiving.)
Winter Wonderland
Frosty The Snowman
Let it Snow
The German "oh Tannenbaum"

(OK, so I could only think of 4 before I had to go to foreign languages, but there must be more)

The Holly and the Ivy
Deck the Halls (have to check the lyrics on that one)

geesh, now I'm answering my own thread. lame.

I think The Holly and the Ivy gets all religious a few lines in.

George Winston's "December" is very nice for background music.

Saturnalia

Cloud, how much have your daughters said about it?

I don't have kids yet, but I am planning to involve Santa Claus in the solstice celebration someday down the line. It just depends on how the idea is presented. For my family, Santa Claus will be a character that represents joy, generosity, and love, and part of his story is that he brings gifts to the children of the world. It's compatible with the holiday being a celebration about family and the return of the light, but it also gives kids purchase in the American "holiday season."

I think it very much depends on how your daughters want to celebrate, since for every solstice-celebrating family the holiday is very different.

Surely it's ok to have a little Wassle? Piping hot for a dark night of the year treeeat!
People usually try and tell me that wassle is an alcoholic beverage, but I really never make it that way.

We used to sing wassailing songs at Christmas too - what can I say, we were Catholic but had an eye on our heritage!

The best known one is Here We Come A Wassailing, but this one I remember from the age of about seven - A Wassail, A Wassail. I looked it up to get the words right, but apart from mixing up the words True and Cake (our wassail is made, from good ale and true - well you could uncerstand why a child would want cake in there!) I had the first two verses by heart!

Okay, you can't go a wassailing without understanding neighbours, but I think this might have been in the back of my mind when I mentioned singing.

I think the bottom line is to think about how you celebrated Christmas. I'll bet it was magical the night before, then presents in the morning, then a big fat meal, then dozing and tv after. Not judging you, just going by a typical pattern.

Go back to a more traditional Christmas style. Storytelling, candles and song the night before. Father Christmas, that hoary old harbinger with frost in his beard visiting during the night. Then writing wishes for the next year and putting them in the fire (sorry - you're a warm climate, right?) tying them to a tree or shrub will do - to the Christmas tree if you have one. Or stick oranges with cloves to make a pomander and pin your wishes to this, to hang up for the rest of the year.

Then your special meal.

Then family games - anything from Who Wants to Be A Millionaire DVD game to charades.

And if they didn't stay the night before, but are staying the night after, celebrate that night instead - after all your celebrations worked - the nights are getting shorter again. I know you hate fireworks. Perhaps you can use coloured ribbons instead of sparklers and dance around the garden.

I actually just like making wassle and drinking it. The orange stuffed with cloves smells awesome (don't forgot the cinnammon!) and it looks like "pinhead".


Other people seem to like it, it's usually gone pretty fast.