Howdy everyone! Hope everyone is having an amazing holiday season! I wanted to make a post sharing some of my holiday celebrations including my Yule celebration. I am working on being more of an open book and as this is my first post concerning my practice in religion I wanted to give a little bit of a preamble before jumping into my fun Yule times.

I currently identify as a Wiccan, it is something I have been learning about and loosely practicing it for quite a while. Before I had a person who informed me a lot about it and was teaching me slowly over the last few years but they had a lot of shame tied with it that carried over into my practice that I am trying to work through. Even when it was first introduced to me it was something that clicked with me and I enjoyed. But now I am taking things into my own hands and have started learning and looking into things on my own. As I learn more I might change my mind and part ways with all of it but for now, I think Wicca is the best fit for me and my beliefs. Wicca is a pretty broad religion with lots of different beliefs and practices so if you have any questions on what it means for me and my beliefs, I am an open book and willing to answer any questions. Without further ado let’s jump into Yule!

What is Yule?

Yule or the Winter Solstice celebrates the rebirth of the sun. December 21st is the shortest day and longest night of the year and marks the first day of astronomical winter, for the rest of the year days will get longer. A lot of celebrations that you know and love from Christmas are borrowed or inspired by old Yule traditions. Common festivities include feasts, giving gifts, decorating a Yule log, making garlands, going on hikes, bonfires, and tons more.

How I Celebrated Yule in 2024

Early this month I went down to Crone’s Cupboard and gathered a bunch of supplies. We don’t have a ton of metaphysical stores here in Boise but the folks at Crone’s Cupboard were so nice and helpful and I got everything I needed and I even got to pick up a cauldron. I don’t have a lot of my tools that I need for Wicca so I was so glad I could pick one up. Here are some other stuff I picked up:

• 3 Candles (2 Green, 1 Red)
• Yule Incense
• Mistletoe
• Bloodstone
• Bloodstone Bracelet
• Yule Bundle (Smudge stick)

On December 21st I and my sister went up to Idaho City for a hike to gather some materials to decorate my Yule log, I mostly just needed pine tree branches and pine-cones. More important than that though was just being out in nature. It was one of the best hikes I had been on in a long time. The fresh air, the sparkle of the light on the snow the sounds of crows. I learned that I have a pretty decent crow impression and even found a really cool mushroom species near the end of our hike. We even spent some time just laying in the snow and enjoying a quick snow cone snack.

After that, we headed back to Boise where I stopped at my dad’s to pick up my Yule Log and he helped me drill some holes in my Yule log to hold the candles and it turned out great! On the way home I stopped at Albertsons to grab some cranberries and oranges for the garlands. With all the materials gathered, I went home and warmed up my Yule feast which was a whole chicken, eggnog, and sooooo many garlic knots. I was glad to have my family with me to share my feast and talk with during my Yule celebration. 

We got some music going and Spotify even made me a Winter Solstice playlist that was perfect for the occasion ( Found 3 songs I liked. One of them is up at the top of this post the other two you can find down below.) For the garlands, I used some of the pine branches, cranberries, popcorn, cinnamon sticks, anise star, and (Not so) Dried Oranges. I was impatient and tried to use the oranges even though they were not fully dried, and I also didn’t cut them thick enough so they fell off almost immediately but I was still happy with my garland and I hung it above my door in my room. The last thing I did was prepare a little spell jar. This is to keep some of the potent energy floating around at such an amazing time of the year. For the spell jar, I just put the following items in a jar and sealed it:

• Salt
• Some of the Extra Oranges
• Cranberries
• Popcorn
• Bloodstone
• Anise Star
• Cinnamon Sticks
• Ashes from the Yule incense
• Some pine needles
• Some papers that I wrote on with some stuff I wanted that energy to manifest.
• A bloodstone bracelet I put on top that I will later remove so I can bring those energies with me.

Lastly, I swept out my room of any lingering negative energies and purified it using my little Yule bundle. And just like that my Yule celebrations were over. I sat and watched my Yule log burn in the dark and reflected on myself, what things I did and didn’t enjoy during Yule, and what I would do differently next year. I thought about my life and my goals going into spring and what could be accomplished with the days getting longer.  Usually, you would burn your log at the end of the day to honor the sun coming back but it was raining and I was really tired so I plan on burning it when I have a little more time and it’s a little more dry. I will then save the ashes from the log and use it to burn next year’s log.

Thanks for tuning in, especially if you know nothing about Wicca, I am glad I get to share it with you, and I’m excited to explore this side of myself going forward and hope to see all of you on February 1st for the next sabbat Imbolc!

Cheers,

Chandler