Our Yule Celebrations: Yule Tree

My partner and I began celebrating Yule exclusively three or four years ago and we never looked back. We have worked on our ideas of the pagan holidays and what that time of year and the traditions surrounding those holidays mean to our lives now. Yule is the first one we really started practicing and the one I feel is the most fleshed out. We combined a lot of old traditions and ideas that make this holiday special with family traditions that we did as kids.

We start our celebration as most people might, with the Yule tree. Around here it's common to buy a special permit for cutting "Christmas Trees" in both Lassen and Plumas National forests. Normally we go to Lassen, like I did every year with my Dad. This year we will go to Plumas instead. We will also be lucky this year, because we just bought an all wheel drive Honda CR-V. In the past we have taken our little Civic up in the snow and strapped the tree on top on her. She has always been a good sport with this, since she has the soul of a Humvee. However, it will be nice to not have to worry about getting stuck up there.

We have to bring some supplies with us for cutting and some fancy Yule magic. We bring our map, permit, and saw for the practical part. For the magic part we bring an offering to the forest fey and some bells for our fey charm. Of course we add some snacks and hot drinks =].

Once we decide what tree we want we prepare the charm. Using the bells we hold them in our hands and invite the fey to come join us for the celebration. I do this by thinking about all the pleasant things about the celebrations, like the warm fire, the baked treats, and the feeling of happiness and excitement. We then put these bells on the tree and leave them for about 30 minutes to allow the fey to accept the invitation or not. Then we cut down the tree and leave the offerings we brought. One thing that is very important to do when you cut the tree is to leave the cut at an angle. This allows the tree to not be infected with rot and die. My father taught me this when I was young, and we would come back to see the tree from last year growing again.

Then the tree goes on top the car and tied in place. Then we get to return home and get warm again. We try to decorate that same day, but often we do the day after, because we are too tired. My partner and I talked about what we felt the tree meant to us during this time. For me Yule is all about community. During the dark, cold, harsh winter you draw your warmth and strength from those around you. For me the wild community around us is an important part of that. It is one of the reasons I love to share the season with our spirit friends, the fey. They symbolize that wild ecosystem that we are apart of and therefore we decorate our tree with things that remind us of that community. Or at Least that's the plan eventually. Many of our ornaments are still old ones we got when we still celebrated Christmas, but we are slowly working towards ornaments they symbols nature and nature spirits.

Once it is all done we always seems to just sit in the glow of the tree for awhile before bed. The one thing I do with the tree is I leave offerings to the fey somewhere near the tree. This year it will be on my altar. I usually just offer a portion of whatever treat I'm making that day. Of course I also water the tree every other day.

That is how we begin our Yule celebration. I will update you all with our other celebrations in the near future. Would you prefer I put it up before Yule, or would you want pictures of our celebration this year and I would post it shortly after Yule? What do you all do in your celebrations? What does Yule mean to you?