There’s a crisp hint of magic in the air. And a sense of warmth and comfort fills our homes. Stockings are hung at the mantle and mama’s baking cookies in the kitchen. Face it. Winter Solstice, aka. Yule, is one of the most enchanting times of the years. It’s a time of giving and receiving. And what better way to express your gratitude and love to others than offering Yule Blessings? Here you’ll find just that. PLUS some beautiful, cozy Winter Solstice poems and quotes to save and share all Winter season.
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First, What is Yule?
Yule is another word for Christmas, yes. But it’s actually much more than that. And technically, it’s older than the modern celebration of Christmas. Yule is a Norse Germanic word for the Winter Solstice, particularly when it comes to the celebration of the Solstice in pagan times. Winter Solstice occurs annually around December 21st in the Northern Hemisphere and June 21st in the Southern Hemisphere. What’s interesting is that although many modern pagans call this holiday Yule, there are DOZENS of other names for the Winter Solstice that differ by culture. So please, explore what your beliefs or preferences might be when it comes to the Solstice, Yule, Christmas, etc. There is no one RIGHT way. Your way is the right way!
As far as Yule traditions, you’ll notice that Santa, his elves, and his reindeer uncannily resemble the Norse god Odin, the Alfar (elven ancestors), and Sleipnir (Odin’s eight-legged steed that he rides through the skies on Winter nights). The Christmas or Yule ham is a modern tradition carried on from ancient times when the Wild Boar was hunted and feasted upon at the Solstice. And the Christmas tree? Many ancient peoples decorated their homes with evergreen foliage including the ancient Romans, Norse, Celts, etc. Click here to learn all about Yule and its traditions. And now, onto the Yule Blessings!
Yule Blessings from Our House to Yours
Yule is an important time of the year because it’s a start to a new SOLAR year. The following morning, the sun returns to the sky as king and the days begin to grow long again. I am sure there were some folks who considered Yule the eve of the New Year, at some point. So why not wish Yule blessings on those we love the most? Also, the third poem is just a little humor, folks. Don’t take it too seriously.
“Set out your offerings of milk and cookies,
Yule Blessings by Kitty Fields
Hang the stockings from the fireplace.
For tonight, on Yule,
Odin and Sleipnir ride to bless us with their
Wisdom, Prosperity, and Grace.“
“May your fire burn warm and bright,
Yule Blessings by Kitty Fields
And may the Yule Spirits bless you this very night.”
“Mama’s baking in the kitchen,
Yule Blessings by Kitty Fields
The stockings are hung with care.
May your family members bless you
with the gift of staying out of your hair.”
“May Odin grant you wisdom and prosperity,
Yule Blessings by Kitty Fields
May the Yule Mother be with you for eternity.”
Winter Solstice Poems: Fun, Festive, and Enchanting
The Holly
HOW happy the holly-tree looks, and how strong,
Where he stands like a sentinel all the year long.
Neither dry summer heat nor cold winter hail
Can make that gay warrior tremble or quail.
He has beamed all the year, but bright scarlet he’ll glow
When the ground glitters white with the fresh fallen snow.
–EDITH KING, Fifty Christmas Poems for Children, 1923
Yuletide Fires
CLEANSE with the burning log of oak
The canker of thy care,
Deck with the scarlet-berried bough
The temple of the fair;
Spread pure-white linen for a feast,
Perchance some guest may share.
–Anonymous, Fifty Christmas Poems for Children 1923
This Christmas / Winter Solstice poem is particularly interesting, because it indeed has Christian elements to it. But it is obvious to me that there are some strong pagan undertones here. The moon, the “green travelers”, even mention of “elfin” people and the sacred evergreens like holly, mistletoe, and fir.
SIX GREEN SINGERS
THE frost of the moon fell over my floor
And six green singers stood at my door.
“What do ye here that music make?”
“Let us come in for Christ’s sweet Sake.”
“Long have ye journeyed in coming here?”
“Our Pilgrimage was the length of the year.”
“Where do ye make for?” I asked of them.
“Our Shrine is a Stable in Bethlehem.”
“What will ye do as ye go along?”
“Sing to the world an ever-green song.”
“What will ye sing for the listening earth?”
“One will sing of a brave-souled Mirth,
“One of the Holiest Mystery,
The Glory of glories shall one song be,
“One of the Memory of things,
One of the Child’s imaginings,
“One of our songs is the fadeless Faith,
And all are the Life more mighty than death.”
“Ere ye be gone that music make,
Give me an alms for Christ’s sweet Sake.”
“Six green branches we leave with you;
See they be scattered your house-place through.
“The staunch blithe Holly your board shall grace,
Mistletoe bless your chimney place,
“Laurel to crown your lighted hail,
Over your bed let the Yew-bough fall,
“Close by the cradle the Christmas Fir,
For elfin dreams in its branches stir,
“Last and loveliest, high and low,
From ceil to floor let the Ivy go.”
From each glad guest I received my gift
And then the latch of my door did lift–
“Green singers, God prosper the song ye make
As ye sing to the world for Christ’s sweet Sake.”
–ELEANOR FARJEON, Fifty Christmas Poems for Children, 1923
With this Winter Solstice poem, I’ve purposely left out the last stanza so as to keep it as secular or pagan as possible. The last stanza does mention “Christ” yet the rest of the poem seems to me to be speaking of the Wild Hunt, as well as the old year dying and a new beginning.
From “In Memoriam”
RING out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring in the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
–Alfred Tennyson, Fifty Christmas Poems for Children, 1923
Sonnet 97
How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen!
What old December’s bareness everywhere!
–William Shakespeare
AN OLD MAN’S WINTER NIGHT
All out-of-doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.
What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.
What kept him from remembering what it was
That brought him to that creaking room was age.
He stood with barrels round him—at a loss.
And having scared the cellar under him
In clomping there, he scared it once again
In clomping off—and scared the outer night,
Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar
Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so like beating on a box.
A light he was to no one but himself
Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,
A quiet light, and then not even that.
He consigned to the moon—such as she was,
So late-arising—to the broken moon
As better than the sun in any case
For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,
His icicles along the wall to keep;
And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt
Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.
One aged man—one man—can’t keep a house,
A farm, a countryside, or if he can,
It’s thus he does it of a winter night.
–Robert Frost
Winter Solstice Quotes: Magic and Whimsy
Sometimes there’s nothing that gets me more in the mood for the holiday season than reading some of my favorite Winter Solstice quotes. Enjoy.
“The Winter Solstice marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year, a point of dramatic natural change on Earth. From this point on, the Sun rises earlier and earlier, each time adding a little more light and warmth to the cold and silent days of Winter. On Yule, we honor the Goddess, Mother Earth, for giving birth to the Sun once more.
At Yule, the two God themes of death and rebirth coincide. The Holly King, the retainer of light who has symbolized death and darkness since Samhain, is vanquished by the rebirth of the Oak King, who symbolizes Life. The Holly and the Oak are two of the many trees sacred to the Celts, and even evergreens are often brought inside to reaffirm life during the dark Winter, sometimes decorated with apples, symbolizing Avalon and the Sun. The beauty of Yule is that it recognizes the interconnected nature of all existence.”
Laurie Cabot and the Cabot Kent Hermetic Temple
“Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we celebrate the darkness as it is in its fullest influence. The once fertile forests are now bare and awaiting their rebirth. The surrounding shadows whispering to us of our natural-born powers. And the knowledge of a convergent awakening.”
Dacha Avelin
“Yule or Jol is an ancient Germanic holiday season. The name Jol is believed to come from a name for Odin himself – JÓLFAÐR, which translates to Yule Father. Which came first, Yule or the Yule Father?”
Kitty Fields, Otherworldly Oracle
Are any of you familiar with Robert Fulgham’s Tribute to Winter Solstice? I heard it in a theatre presentation of “Ah Oh. Here Comes Christmas” many, years ago, written by him. I would love to have a copy. It is a beautiful description of how the earth is actually beginning to awaken as the days grow longer and the sun returns to bring warmth and much needed light for all living things. I’ve done many internet searches with no success. Any help is greatly appreciated. I just discovered you site today and I’m thoroughly enjoying all you have to read.
Thank you