Yuletide ornaments

Yoda

In November 2001, Demeter said at mysticwicks.com

With the approach of the holiday season, many of us are looking forward to decorating our trees and putting up wreaths and decorations. At this time of year, I am reminded of a question my mother once asked me (very delicately, with considerable hesitation) ..."Are Pagans allowed to have Christmas trees and wreaths and presents and things like that?" I laughed, and said, "Mom, who do you think invented most of those customs? There certainly weren’t any pine trees in Bethlehem!" Pagans are just as much into decorating for the holiday (Yule, December 21st, the Winter Solstice) as anybody else! And most of the decorations are perfectly acceptable whether you be Pagan or Christian – most of the traditional decorations originate in Northern European pagan traditions anyway. But we could, if we wanted, decorate our homes with wonderful witchy decorations. Even the non-Pagans among us may find some interesting ideas here, so read on!

The Yule Log: A very old English tradition, the Yule log was the first fire kindled at Yule. The old hearth fire was allowed to go out. A log cut from a fallen tree was brought into the house, decorated with evergreens and ribbons, and kindled to symbolize the return of the life-giving sun. A piece of the charred end of the log was kept to use as kindling for the next year’s log. Now, most of us don’t have big fireplaces which are vital to the well-being of our homes any more. A very nice candle holder can be made from an attractive piece of log. Saw one side of the log flat so it won’t roll. Put felt on the flat side to protect your furniture. Drill three 3/4 inch holes, evenly spaced, on the top of the log, and decorate the log as desired with ribbons, pine cones, evergreen branches, and so on. You can put spray adhesive and some glitter on it if you want. Put candles in the holes, and voila! At 12:21 a.m. on December 21 (or on Christmas Eve, or at any holiday party you’re hosting), light the candles and ring bells and cheer. Save at least one candle stub along with the holder to use to light next year’s Yule candles.

Yule Tree Decorations: Here are some ideas for things you can put in your tree.

Garland your tree with fake ivy from the craft store. The kind with variegated leaves (white stripes on green) looks very nice. Tie sprigs of holly and mistletoe (real or fake; remember that real mistletoe is poisonous, so if you have cats or toddlers around the house, use the fake stuff) into the tree with red or white bows.

In November, the craft stores usually have lots of those little decorative brooms (a couple of inches long) left over from Halloween. Or you could collect sticks and dried grass or raffia and make your own little brooms. Then decorate them with ribbon, holly berries, glitter, or whatever you like. Glue a loop of gold or silver cord to the top of the handle, and hang them from your tree.

Get grapevine and soak it until pliable. Bend it into little circles, tie it with thread, and let it dry. Then use twigs or more grapevine and a hot glue gun to make either pentagrams or sun crosses (equal-armed crosses) in the circle. Decorate with ribbons, add a cord loop, and hang on tree. (If you are grape-vine challenged, you could use colored pipe cleaners for this.)

Get a bunch of nuts (a bag of mixed nuts from the supermarket will do). Spray paint them gold (or silver, if it fits better with your tree motif). Spray with an acrylic coat to protect the paint if you desire. Glue a cord loop to the top. Glue little silk flowers or holly or bows to the top of the nut to hide where you glued the loop on. You can do the same with plastic fruits from the craft store.

You know those little counted cross-stitch kits to make decorations in a hoop with a little fabric ruffle? Some of those have perfectly acceptable Yule motifs such as wreaths, trees, candles, and so on. Santa is, of course, descended from the Norse God Odin, and the English Father Christmas is a wonderful Yule symbol. You can make up other designs or crib them from the net, or look in those books of simple designs that they have at the craft store, you should be able to find symbols like cats and cauldrons and suns and moons. It will take about 1 evening to make 1 of these, so start early if you want a bunch of them on your tree!

Crystals! What would a Pagan Yule tree be without crystals? You can get little spiral wire cages to put them in, or make wire wraps if you’re into that craft (and they make wonderful colored wires to complement your crystal colors).

Birds! Craft stores often carry those little fake birds, some with real feathers. Decorate your tree with a flock of birds. This looks especially nice if you’re using nuts and ivy and popcorn/cranberry garlands and other “natural” type decorations. It looks like they swooped into your house to eat the yummy foods on your tree.

Do you remember making God's Eyes when you were little? Take two sticks and tie them together at right angles. Then you wrap them with yarn or ribbon or colored cord, making a diamond-shaped pattern. Glue a cord at one point to hang. If you want little ones, use toothpicks and embroidery thread.

Take polymer clay and make ornaments. You can mold it into little gods and goddesses. Get a package of eye pins (blunt pin shafts with a loop) and stick them into the tops of the ornaments before baking. You can paint these ornaments or leave them whatever color clay you used. Terracotta is nice because it gives the feel of those little ancient votive figures like the Venus of Willendorf. You can also make long snakes of clay and make pentacles or sun crosses. Or roll the clay out between two sheets of wax paper and use cookie cutters to make shapes which you can then decorate with other colors of clay. Punch a hole in the top of the ornament for a string. If you didn’t decorate with colored clay, you can paint them after they’ve been baked. (Don’t use the cookie cutters again for real food after they’ve been used for clay. Get some inexpensive ones just for this purpose.)

I think I’ve gone on quite enough here. Have fun, y'all!

For my part, I want a Willendorf for the top of the tree. No "angel" need apply.

Nevyn

I got some wonderful straw suns (yes suns one of the kids says they are snowflakes but trust me they are suns). They are made out of this years harvest and are to attract back the sun on the solataice and will be burned with the yule log this year. they are sewn together with gold and sliver thread very pretty and we will be making cookies in star and moon shapes with will be tied to the tree with red ribbon.

Also we have but the Yule tree in the north of our sitting room where the altar is usually but for rituals so the whole tree in it's self is an offering to the Gods at this time.