how does everybody handle Christmas/Yule?

Jessica - posted on 06/25/2011

I reject the anything to do with the manger, or anything remotely religious (although I explained them to my oldest and I don't think he quite got it). My youngest hasn't had his b-day yet, but he was born on Dec 13nth... and I am planning on keeping it separate from Christmas or yule. My neighbors keep on preaching to my oldest (16 months old) so of course I have had to explain several times about how that is what they believe. Mommy doesn't and neither does Mema, but they do. Then I e explain that someday he will be able to decide what he believes. I thought he was too young to start asking... but he asked so... yeah *is a bit spooked by how fast his understanding matures*.

Rebecca - posted on 03/10/2009

I'm Australian and follow the seasons down under. This means that I celebrate Midsummer/Litha. It's time for me to get out in the summer sun. This Year I'm thinking of getting my friends over for a "Midsummer Madness BBQ" which also blends well to seeing ones friends pre-christmas. I do put a tree up and decorate it with lights, metallic colours a beautiful gold pentacle atop of said tree. Both christmas and yule are festivals of light and you could explain it as such. The only difference besides how it's don is the bowel in the middle. Chrstian: The birth of the the Son of God. Pagan: The birth of th Sun God.

Hillarie - posted on 02/19/2009

We kinda do both. We'd like to eventually get to just doing Yule but Im not sure if we will ever get there LOL.



This year(well 2008) we did gifts on Christmas morning and for Yule we did the tree. We put the kids down for a nap and then we decorated the tree and had it lit for when they woke up. We told them that Father Winter(the name we use instead of Santa) and his fairies did the tree for them. That was probably the best part of the whole thing, they LOVED it!!!



This year Im hoping we do just Yule and do the tree the same way.



Oh we did burn a Yule Log(DH and I) and tossed in our regrets for the year to burn. It felt great. That was the one "ritual" type thing we did. We arent very big doers of formal rituals. I like to keep things simple.



We did make some tree decorations the year before(2007) and I think we will do that again this time around too. Kids loved it.



I think the only thing we really reject is commercialism. Its there but we dont go overboard on gifts. They get two gifts....one from us and one from Father Winter(unless finances say only one is doable). One must be educational in nature also.

Julie - posted on 02/04/2009

Well, things are going to be a little different this year. We've moved back to Denver and unfortunately, my husband's family is not nearly as open as my family is. So it's going to be interesting to see what happens.

Generally, though, we have a tree and we celebrate both Yule and Christmas. Christmas is part of both of our upbringings and there are so many traditions that we like to keep and pass on.  Yes, we talk about Santa -hey, how can you have a Magical household without talking about an ELF! But Santa is the greatest gift giver - he gives without expecting anything in return.

Cyndi - posted on 02/01/2009

My ex- husband and I split the holidays.  I have my boys from my first marriage on Yule and then he has them for Christmas.  It works out really well for us b/c then there's no fighting about who got the kids for what day on what year.  My current husband and I have a son together and celebrating is a bit different now.  He doesn't consider himself any "relgion" but he does believe in a bigger power.  He celebrates Christmas and Easter, without going to church.  So, the baby celebrates Yule with his brothers and myself and then gets to celebrate Christmas with his sister and dad.  It really works out very well here.  I try very hard to teach my kids about different religions so that when they grow up, they can make an informed decision for themselves. 

Aimee - posted on 12/06/2008

I am a young (21) mom of a 18 month old so we haven't yet really gotten to celebrate Yule as a family since our entire extended family is very conservative Christian and we still celebrate Christmas with them. But I keep in mind that almost all Christmas celebrations are pagan at heart and we can celebrate them with our families without causing a scene over our change in religion. Even celebrating the birth of the son of god has ties to Yuletide Sun worship in welcoming the new sun after the longest night of the year. I hope though, as my child gets older, to be able to celebrate all the pagan holidays without the guise of christianity. I really like Jennifer's ideas of waking at dawn to greet the new sun and eat cinnamon rolls. And it is nice that christmas and Yule are not on the same day so everyone can help celebrate with both their christian and pagan family members.

Jennifer - posted on 12/02/2008

My husband, kids, and I started celebrating on the Solstice a few years ago. Now the whole family joins us. The adults stay up all night and I bake cinnamon rolls from scratch. My dad loves that flights home on the 25th are cheaper, and the kids love getting their gifts days ahead of their friends. We get the kids up just before dawn to welcome the sun, eat cinnamon rolls, open stockings, then the adults nap while the kids busy themselves with new gifts and stocking candy. It was easy to combine it all in my house because everyone is pagan or atheist - and since so many of the things we had always done before were originally pagan, it was just a matter of remembering the reason behind the rituals. The biggest advantage so far is that my step mother is Mormon (the only Christian in the bunch) and her family was always very into nature - so she loves celebrating with us, then getting the chance to celebrate with her family and she doesn't have to choose one over the other. Her brother actually sent us a beautiful pagan poem about solstice to read instead of "Twas the Night...".