I must be honest. I do sometimes cringe at the consumerism that society pushes and the enforced Christmas shopping, just because it is Christmas people feel they need to buy gifts, cards and candy canes for one another. Those fuzzy socks your cousin gets from your aunt just because they will be there at the Christmas Eve party is never really appreciated. My stepmother’s family has started to play “White Elephant” as all the children became adults. Christmas has lost a bit of its authenticity over the years of the markets and stores taking advantage of this time, but I still enjoy it and all that it represents from long time ago. It is true, there is a special energy in the air created by the collective imaging Christmas together.
It may be because my Elven roots, knows this holiday goes deeper to a warmer place of the heart that is about the Winter Solstice and welcoming the sun back to earth again. It can be about the message of Christ for good will towards all on earth too. Tolkien certainly saw it like this even with its pagans roots.
More about the Winter Solstice and its spiritual meaning for you here:
The ancients knew that the winter solstice meant that the sun was beginning its long journey back towards earth. It was a time of celebration, and for rejoicing in the knowledge that soon, the warm days of spring would return, and the dormant earth would come back to life. A time of transformation, and rejoicing. All green life would eventually thaw out from under its frozen blanket, but in the meantime a celebration with good food, creating a Yule Log, decorating trees, and wassailing which is going from door to door greeting with warm drinks and singing songs of good cheer would go on. These all first originated in Norway, and it is the Christians of Europe who later “borrowed” the Christmas tree idea and many of the festivities of the Yule holiday.
How can I not be mad at this transference of my native holiday to a Christian one as a mystical “Neo-pagan” today? Because to me, who sees the world in unity consciousness, I see it all as one thing anyways. One chronological evolution of a holiday that is still evolving today even. To me, the ancient pagans of Norway planted the seeds of this beautiful time, and later the Christians of Europe cultivated it, modified it and made it spread even further by adding the figure of Christ to it. Christ is the returning “sun”.
In Letters From Father Christmas, J.R.R Tolkien includes ALL versions of Santa in his letters to his children, and it is heart warming to see him speak about St. Nicholas, Father Christmas and his “Green Brother”.
He writes this to his children in the voice of Father Christmas, which exemplifies the true Christmas spirit..
“The old Polar Bear and I enjoyed having many nice letters from you and your pets. If you think we have not read them you are wrong; but if you find that not many of the things you asked for have come, and not perhaps quite as many sometimes, remember that this Christmas all over the world there are a terrible number of poor and starving people. I and also my Green Brother have had to do some collecting food and clothes, and toys too, for children whose fathers and mothers and friends can not give them anything, sometimes not even dinner. So children I hope you will be happy this Christmas and not quarrel, and will have some good Railway all together. Don’t forget to think of old Father Christmas when you light your tree. ”
This week, I was inspired like Tolkien to help the children I manage in an after-school program to write holiday cards to children in the hospital over the season. They were so eager to get started and their cards turned out to be so beautiful. Some cut out little pictures of things like snowflakes and snowmen to decorate the white paper. Others cut out a geometrical tree that popped up when you open it. It made me so proud to see these kids get so much joy out of giving to others.
THIS is the true Christmas to me. Yule started it, with the pagans giving a lovely foundation of tree decorating, yule logs in the fireplace, hanging stockings up and singing with hot cider. That all we still use today. But the figure of Christ came into the collective minds to add an extra element about generosity and grace. It is about remembering everyone on earth is on their own journey, and the road may be hard, but we are always helped by the Universe reflected through another. When we see each other struggle, we can reach down and offer a hand or in this case, a small token of friendship and love in a small box with a bow or food to the poor. This time of the year has the most amount of donations and collections for the homeless and needy than any other time. Even the school I work at is doing a coat and clothes drive for kids in need.
I absolutely will still celebrate this dual holiday with my family who sees each other a few times a year, but as my non-Christian family gets together at Christmas Eve for Yule time celebrations we always have a really nice time. My husband who did not have a Yule tree as a child because his father said “Santa was a drunk who stole cookies.”, loves the one I put up every year to light up our home. He loves the forest pine candles and incense I burn, as well as the cinnamon sticks I put out. We make hot cocoa together and enjoy the winter season feeling grateful for what we have and wishing the same happiness for others out there in the world.
My little Yule tree, I will replant in a forest in a year.
Come see my video on the Winter Solstice that will celebrate it together with a cozy reading of some of the magical Tolkien’s letters to his children. He also starts to show us how he saw Elves always in his mind and how the characters of them later grew as he was writing these letters yearly.
Join me at 8pm central on Saturday Dec 21st by clicking here!
High Elven wisdom and Love 