youtube.com/watch?v=o67AUuuKVM… youtu.be/o67AUuuKVMU

#BlackHistory #christmas #SantaClaus #YouTube

Half-naked Santas brave cold in Budapest, Hungary for charity - The annual Half-Naked Santa Run #santaclaus #holidays youtube.com/shorts/9FYC3...

Half-naked Santas brave cold i...

Christmas Chainsaw Massacre

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://warandpeas.com/2025/12/14/santa-roof-grim-reaper-chainsaw-comic/

Many Santa Clauses are riding their bikes down the main streets of Kyoto.
#japan #kyoto #winter #tokyocameraclub #christmas #santaclaus #xmas #bike

Antes de Coca-Cola y los anuncios, Santa Claus era un hombre real: Nicolás de Bari, obispo del siglo IV, generoso y bondadoso. Su historia inspiró al mito navideño que hoy conocemos. 🎄✨

https://mundopandereta.blogspot.com/2014/12/conoces-al-verdadero-santa-claus_11.html

#SantaClaus #NicolásDeBari #HistoriaNavideña #MundoPandereta #CuriosidadesNavidad

Der Mann im roten Mantel – The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus von L. Frank Baum https://www.lesering.de/id/4947457/Der-Mann-im-roten-Mantel---The-Life-and-Adventures-of-Santa-Claus-von-L-Frank-Baum/ #Weihnachten #Kinderbuch #SantaClaus #Kinderbuch #FrankBaum #Klassiker #Erzählung #Ursprung #Mythos

A man and his bike #heerhugowaard #santarun #christmas #christmas2025 #weihnachten #weihnachtszeit #weihnachtsmann #santa #santaclaus

Lalaji Ban Gaye Santa Claus | Hindi Rhymes & Cartoons | Infobells #hindirhymes #santaclaus

#hindirhymes #hindicartoons #lalajinekelakhaya #lalaji #santa #santaclaus Watch More Popular Videos from Infobells Hindi Rhymes & Baby Songs: Aloo Kachaloo Beta Kahan Gaye The 👉 Aaj Mangalwar Hai | Chuha Ko Bukhar Hai 👉 Hathi Raja Kahan Chale 👉 Chal Mere Ghode Tik Tik Tik 👉 Bandar Mama Pahan Pajama 👉 Top 25 Hindi Rhymes for Children | Infobells Compilation…

https://chutneymusic.com/lalaji-ban-gaye-santa-claus-hindi-rhymes-cartoons-infobells-hindirhymes-santaclaus/

I’m sick of Santa getting credit – I told my youngest the truth

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://metro.co.uk/2025/12/14/im-sick-santa-getting-credit-told-youngest-truth-25382595/

It's December and all I see is present shopping, Christmas sweets and blinking lights. So, it seems to be time for: Santa Claus.

And I used the Lego Minifigure in my hand while sketching, then inking and coloring. I wish you a calm, pieceful and warm time.

#ink #inktober #art #mastoart #lego #minifigure #fediart #artistsonmastodon #drawing #sketch #sketchbook #painting #color #christmas #santa #santaclaus #holidays #digitalart #krita #foss #linux #daily #artwork #arts #arte #artist #artforsale #illustration #red #light #happy #inktober52

The True Story of Christmas: A Quick Guide to Yule and Winter Solstice

Every Christmas morning of my childhood started the same way. My family woke up early, grabbed a Bible, and read from Luke — Chapter 2 to be exact. I was the designated reader for many years, so I can still rifle off the beginning: “And it came to pass in those days…” blah… blah… blavity blah.

I’m not shy about openly stating the fact that, as an adult, I don’t care too much for Christmas. People get so busy around this time of year that they often become jerks, holiday rushes display some of the worst of humanity, gifts are required, and … okay, I’ll stop there.

I get through Christmas season for two simple reasons:

• My wife loves it
• I can ironically designate Christmas items as Yule items. (Example: “Yesterday we put up our Yule tree.” or “The landscapers chopped up our Yule lights again!)

Yule gives me an opportunity to reexamine the “spirit of the season” without the pollution of modern Christmas craziness.

So yeah. I’m a Grinch. I hate Christmas. But I do like Yule. As such, I now present to you this obligatory guide to Yule.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3itgupnrPzhMPTEOVjiGAe?si=LcEISorqSsmMABkKTVeOHw

Basic Info

The word “Yule” comes from Old English, “gēol” and may have even gone as far back as Proto Norse “jól.” I haven’t been able to determine if the word had any specific meaning, other than implying a certain time of year.

As modern pagans, what we’re really talking about is the Winter Solstice, which occurs every year in the Northern Hemisphere sometime around Dec 21 – 22. In 2023, at the time I originally wrote this article, the solstice occurred precisely at 10:27 PM Eastern on Thursday, Dec 21. In 2024, we’re looking at 4:21 AM Eastern on Saturday, December 21. Yuletide, if you wish to celebrate the entire season, happens from December 21 to January 1, unless you’re Jason Mankey, in which case I think it starts sometime in mid-November.

If you’re lost, you can always refer to the handy locator chart. You’ll find the “You Are Here” marker is between both equinoxes and directly opposite the Summer Solstice.

The Winter Solstice, of course, is the longest night and shortest day of the year. We commonly say that the sun is reborn on this morning, starting the cycle of the Wheel of the Year all over again.

I can imagine that it must have been fairly unnerving for our ancestors, gradually watching the nights grow longer and colder each day as the sun grew weaker. Once the sun shifted its course and began gaining strength again, it was truly a cause for celebration!

And celebrate they did! From glögg and wassail to yule logs and evergreens, we’re going to talk about it all! Well, we’re at least going to talk about a lot of it.

Around the World

Since the solstice is a worldwide event, several different cultures throughout history have celebrated it in their own, unique way. Although many of us tend to look at things through a lens of modern paganism, nobody has a monopoly on worshipping the sun!

JOL (Scandinavia)

Illustration of an Ancient Nordic Yule celebration. Public Domain. Image courtesy of Wikimedia.

The Vikings would have hailed the period of jól with feasts, drinking, songs, games, and sacrifices to the gods. There is one legend in particular where Odin would ride Sleipnir (the eight-legged horse) across the night sky to visit everyone’s houses. Does that sound similar to any modern-day tales?

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Julbord (IKEA)

IKEA store by Montgomery County Planning Commission, CC BY-SA 2.0. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

If you’d like to get a taste for what these feasts might have been like, you can always visit some of the Viking’s descendants in Norway, Denmark, or Sweden. If that seems like too much of a trek, your local IKEA probably hosts a Swedish Christmas Julbord Buffet, complete with “glögg,” a traditional mulled wine spiked with rum and whiskey.

Selene and I went one year and sampled all of the food. I can’t really say that I found too much of it to be palatable, but it was a fun experience.

STONEHENGE (England)

Stonehenge Sunrise by Mark Grant. CC BY 2.5. Image courtesy of Wikimedia.

There are open Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge that are free of charge every year, but I imagine it gets pretty crowded. On the Winter Solstice, the sun sets to the south-west of the stone circle. On Summer Solstice, the sun rises behind the heel stone. Perhaps this giant monument was a burial site, a vital clue from the past, or an ancient clock, but either way, people are fascinated by it!

This year, the Stonehenge Winter Solstice celebration begins at sunrise on Friday 22 December 2023, but it’s also livestreamed for those of us who can’t attend in person.

Lohri (India)

The Bhangra Dance. The Global Institutes. CC BY-SA 3.0. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Lohri is observed around India with the lighting of bonfires, brightly colored clothing, dancing, and song. Although its date is usually in January, it celebrates the end of winter and the coming of longer days after the darkest night of the solstice, so it’s still in line with our topic.

Saturnalia (Ancient Rome)

Saturnalia by Antoine Callet. Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Saturnalia was a Roman festival held between Dec 17 and Dec 21 to celebrate the god Saturn, who was commonly associated with things like wealth, abundance, and agriculture. It included gift-giving, feasting, gambling, and in general sounds like a pretty fun party. They even elected a “King of Saturnalia,” which reminds me a lot of the May Queen or May King roles you would have during festivities commonly held around Beltane.

INTI Raymi (Inca Empire)

Celebration of Inti Raymi by Gerd Breitenbach, CC BY-SA 3.0. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Inti Raymi was a celebration in the Inca Empire, focusing on the sun god Inti at the Winter Solstice. It’s important to note that the southern hemisphere’s solstices are swapped from the northern hemisphere, so this event actually occurs during June and lasts for 9 days. It included animal sacrifices, dances, processions, and brightly colored clothing. It is still celebrated today by people throughout the Andes region.

Associations

Before we get too much further into this, let’s go over some basic “Yule” associations that you can find pretty much everywhere…

• Dates: Dec 21/22
• Colors: Green, red, white, gold, silver
• Flowers: poinsettias
• Herbs: mistletoe, holly, evergreen
• Crystals: sunstone, obsidian, quartz, moss agate, bloodstone
• Foods: apples, oranges, cinnamon, peppermint
• Instruments: drums, bells, choirs

The True Story of Christmas

Everyone knows that December 25 is the official historic birthdate of Jesus Christ, right? Not really. I guess that’s one possibility, but there’s really no evidence to determine the exact date. While the birth of Jesus may be a little murky, the birth of Mithras was not.

Double-sided Mithraic relief from Louvre Museum. CC BY-SA 3.0. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Mithras is an ancient god, often equated with a Bull. The Greeks and Romans considered him a solar deity, but he can be found all over the ancient world, including Persia, Iran, and India. His birthday was traditionally celebrated on December 25 way before Jesus ever came into the picture.

The Cult of Mithras was a pretty big deal in Ancient Rome. If you combine this with Saturnalia, the mid-December festival that honored Saturn, it seems like there was a lot of Pagan activity going on in Rome around this time of year.

At this point, the Christian church had two options. They could either put a stop to the celebrations or they could relabel them. They went with the option that they do best. Sometime in the 4th century, the church officially decreed that Christmas was to be celebrated on December 25.

Instead of getting rid of Mithras or Saturnalia, they just gave people a new deity to focus on. Just like Lughnasadh became a Christian bread mass blessed by God instead of Lugh, December 25 would celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ instead of Mithras.

To celebrate this most holy of days, evergreens may have been brought inside the house and decorated with apples to represent the fruit from the Garden of Eden.

The True Story of Santa Claus

It’s almost impossible to think of Christmas without also picturing the big man himself, right? No, no, I’m not talking about Jesus anymore. I’m talking about Santa Claus.

In the 4th century, there was a famous monk named Nicholas of Bari who had a reputation for gift-giving and generous donations to the poor. Yep! He was a real dude. He sometimes chose to give gifts secretly or mysteriously, like stashing coins in a person’s shoes that had been left out.

Not a lot is truly known about Nicholas of Bari. It is said that he was born to wealthy Christian parents somewhere in Asia Minor, but most of the stories or accounts about him were written hundreds of years after his death. You might say that death made him pretty famous… because he achieved Sainthood and later became Saint Nicholas.

Stories of Saint Nicholas spread far and wide. If you’d like a quick, abbreviated history that leaves out far too many details: Saint Nicholas, who would later become our Beloved Old Saint Nick, first became Sint-Nicolaas, then Sinterklaas, and finally Santa Claus.

I’m not here to give Santa’s life story. After all, we all know he lives happily at the North Pole with Mrs. Claus.

St. Nicholas portrait by Jaroslav Čermák (1831 – 1878). Public Domain. Courtesy of Wikipedia.

What about Santa’s Pagan counterparts. What about Krampus? Belsnickel? Father Christmas? Maybe we’ll leave those for next year.

What are the God and Goddess Doing

It’s always useful to consider what the god and goddess are doing at each sabbat. At Yule, it’s pretty simple. The goddess is giving birth and the god is being born!

On the morning of winter solstice, the sun is reborn, and as such, so is the god. It will continue to grow in strength until its highest point at Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year.

The Holly King and the Oak King

The battle between the Holly King and Oak King is a common tale that is told around this time of year. The Holly King represents darkness and the Oak King represents light. Together, they also represent duality and the two opposing forces of the god — life and death. Their battle symbolizes the shifting halves of the year — the light half and the dark half.

The way the story is usually told is this: At Winter Solstice, the Oak King defeats the Holly King. At Summer Solstice, the Holly King wins. They keep trading the throne back and forth each year for eternity.

To tell you the truth, it’s always kind of bothered me that the Holly King loses during the longest night and the Oak King loses during the longest day. They’re basically losing a battle when they’re at their most powerful.

I think the story would make a lot more sense if they fought at the Equinoxes. That way, they could come at each other as equals. The Oak King would win at Spring Equinox, ushering in the light half of the year, and the Holly King would win at Fall Equinox, ushering in the dark half of the year. But who am I to rewrite legends? I’m only here to rewrite songs — and we’ll talk about that more later.

Yule Log

The Yule log is iconic in all its forms — as a log burning in the fireplace, as a tabletop decoration, or as a delicious cake masquerading as a fallen tree.

Also, I made this one for Selene last year.

Yule Log. Do not eat this one. Do not light on fire. Original image.

The symbolism goes back to keeping bonfires burning during the Solstice.

The particular tradition and lore that I received, which actually I think is a really fun idea, is that we keep a fire lit on the darkest night of the year to help ensure that the sun is reborn and rises again the next morning.

I was told that, as witches, it’s basically our job to stay up all night and tend to a fire. It’s kind of a nice thought to picture witches all over the world, collectively working toward a common goal… and pretending that if we don’t, the sun just might not come up again! I don’t know how many people actually do this, but it’s still a nice thought. Selene and I don’t usually stay up the entire night, but we do keep a candle safely burning in the shower!

Wassail

Wassailing was an ancient custom that varied from village to village, but probably originated in England with apple farmers. The general idea involved some form of drinking and some form of making noise. People may have drank toasts of apple cider or poured it out on the trees, then shouted or made lots of noise to scare away evil spirits. This process was supposed to ensure a bountiful crop for the next growing season.

Groups of people might have traveled from orchard to orchard, singing songs as they went. Sounds a lot like Christmas caroling, right?

The word “wassail” was actually a customary greeting, “wes hál,” which in Old English basically meant “be in good health.” You may be familiar with the famous Christmas song “Here We Come A‐Wassailing,” which speaks of singing while wandering around places where there are green leaves, then bids the listener love and joy in the coming New Year.

Eventually, the greeting became associated moreso with the cider drink itself, so today Wassail is a lovely beverage to make around the holiday season.

Common recipes usually include things like apple cider, cinnamon, lemon, orange, ginger, nutmeg, and whatever sort of dark liquor you want to spike it with. If you wish to make this tasty beverage, throw all those things in a pot and let it simmer for a few hours.

cuetlaxochitl

You’ve probably seen these flowers around the holiday season. And you probably call them poinsettias. I mean, that’s what my family always called them and, despite my sporadic love of etymology, I never thought to look into it any further. A couple of weeks ago, Selene discovered that they have another name, which I thought would fun to share.

Actually, since we’re about to get specific with some things… the red part of the poinsettia isn’t actually a flower. It’s a modified leaf called a bract.

The Aztecs called this plant cuetlaxochitl which was pronounced something like “ket-la-sho-she.” They didn’t grow well in the climate of Tenochtitlan, the capital city which is now Mexico City, so thousands of plants were imported each year. They were used in medicine, dyes, cooking, and celebrations, including Winter Solstice, where they were a symbol of Huitzilopochtli, their solar and war deity.

Much later, Franciscan friars started using cuetlaxochitl in nativity processions for the Fiesta of Santa Pesebre. Legends and lore for these plants are rather abundant, but one of the most popular stories involves a young girl named Pepita. She went to the birth of Jesus Christ, but didn’t have a gift — kind of like The Little Drummer Boy. She gathered what she could along the way, which ended up being a bundle of weeds. Angels felt sorry for her, so they transformed her weeds into a cuetlaxochitl bouquet. Gold, frankincense, myrrh, and cuetlaxochitl, right?

On Christmas Eve in 1826, Colonel Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U.S. Agent in South America, saw the flower in a church in Taxco de Alarcon, Guerrero, Mexico. I guess he must of really liked it or something because ever since then, everyone has been calling it “poinsettia” after his name.

Music

If you know me, you know one of my favorite Yule traditions is to rewrite a Christmas song and make it about something Pagan.

Last year I rewrote “We Three Kings” into “We Two Kings” and made it about the battle between the Holly King and the Oak King.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbYohlO2Ejs

This year, I rewrote “O Holy Night” into “O Solstice Night” and made it about the birth of the sun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb4UphA0Qo4

I can’t tell you what I’ll rewrite next year, but I’d love to hear your suggestions. It’s a lot of fun. Also, if you’ve ever turned a Christmas classic into a Yule song, I want to hear about it!

(Edit from the future… here’s the next release)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhgspUvxyXE

The Spirit of Yule

When I opened this post, I made a claim that I prefer Yule over Christmas because it gives me an opportunity to re-examine the “spirit of the season.” For a few minutes, I’d like to elaborate on exactly what I mean by that.

For starters, let’s face it — Christmas gifts are pretty much both assumed and required. Yule gifts, on the other hand, are frequently unexpected. That gives me the chance to think about gifts solely from a perspective of “I can and I want to” rather than “I should” or “I have to.”

Christmas can get busy and complicated. Yule feels simple and still. All you really need to observe Yule is a quiet place and a candle.

To be fair, both Yule and Christmas typically involve feasting and making music, two aspects I always enjoy of basically any holiday. But since Yule doesn’t constantly mention Jesus, it still wins here too.

What feeling does the above image evoke? My quintessential holiday fantasy is something like this: There is snow on the ground. Everything is still. It’s cold outside, but it doesn’t matter because you’re inside and it’s warm. Also, there’s probably a fire and a fireplace. You sit in a room next to people you love, then exchange a few gifts — nothing huge, just some small items to remind them that you care. When all that’s done, you eat. And then you relax.

Maybe that sounds like Yule to you, maybe it sounds like Christmas. Whichever way you frame it, the “spirit of the season” is about joy, generosity, and love, but also quiet, stillness, and reflection. Wherever you are, I wish you these blessings regardless of the holiday you’re choosing to celebrate.

By the way, in our coven (or sometimes throughout our entire coven family), we like to do a small gift exchange. I will never call this event a “Secret Santa.” It is more properly called a “Mysterious Odin Gift Exchange.” Please make sure you use the correct terminology if you ever talk to me about it.

Conclusions

Yule started a long, long time ago because people were upset about being cold and needed an excuse to sit around next to bonfires and feast together. Today, it shares many similarities with Christmas, but Yule and Winter Solstice celebrations can be as varied as people. Are there any traditions I left out? What’s your favorite thing to do for Yule? Tell me about it in the comments!

#christmas #holiday #music #pagan #sabbat #santaClaus #wicca #winterSolstice #yule #yuletide