November Musings
This year has seemed to go by so incredibly fast. Just a couple short months ago I was picking the last bouquet from my garden and lamenting the fact that the gardening season was over and fall was on its way. Halloween and Samhain have also blazed past, so quickly that I found myself feeling sad Halloween night that it was all over already. Now I find myself facing down Yule.
I must admit that the Christmas season has never been my favorite. Even as a kid. I never connected with it and as I hid away my witchy ways I remember telling those around me that as soon as my kids grew up and moved out, I probably wouldn’t celebrate Christmas ever again.
Once I began to be more open with my pull towards witchcraft, I made the decision that I was going to celebrate Yule instead. For four years now my boys and I have spent Yule eating way more food than is comfortable, watching holiday movies, and opening one gift each. Since their father celebrates Christmas, we do save the majority of the gifts for Christmas morning so they can open them with their dad when he is over. I was always adamant that I would not raise my children with a religion. When I lost my faith in Christianity and came to realize I never really believed in it, I found myself listless for the longest time. I never wanted that for my boys. The possibility they would one day lose their faith too and not know how to process it. So on Yule the only witchcraft tradition I include them in is a small fire bowl ritual where we write down on a piece of paper what we want to release from the past year and burn it. Each year they ask if we will be doing this again and I feel as though they appreciate it. Needless to say it will be on our list again this year.
Beyond that there will be other things I do for myself that evening, which I will outline in future blog posts for the holiday. But I will say that choosing to celebrate Yule instead of Christmas has become one of the best choices I have made along this journey. Yule speaks to me in a way that Christmas never could.
To me Yule is about our connection with nature. We bring trees in our homes and logs to place candles in. Garlands of dried oranges and cinnamon are common decorations and the snow…oh the snow…the way it floats down from the sky is magical in it’s own way. Yule is about finding warmth in the midst of extreme cold. It’s about spending meaningful time with the family. It is not about the gifts and the commercialism that haunts Christmas and makes it so unenjoyable. Yule is comforting in a way I can’t explain. Like being wrapped in a warm, fuzzy blanket and curling up in front of a fire to enjoy the warmth. Yule will be the only thing that I celebrate moving forward and I have no regrets about that at all.
