we celebrate solstice. we have a white artificial tree which is our "goddess tree" and the kids have little plastic "halloween" cauldrons which they use in place of stockings, for all 8 sabbats. we try to talk about symbols a lot, why there are lights on the tree and why the goodies are in a cauldron. dh and i try to wake and watch the sunrise solstice morning.
this year i want to try making more of the gifts, and encouraging ds to make something too. paganism can sometimes be just as tangled up with consummerism, so i want to focus at least one of the sabbats on making or bartering.
one tradition the group i someties practice with has - we do a giveaway blanket for solstice. people will bring small unwrapped gifts - crystals, books, candles, whatever. everyone puts their stuff on the blanket or table and then takes the same number of things they brought. sometimes the gifts will have symbolic meanings, either to the giver or the one who chooses them, and sometimes they're just neat stuff, like trinkets from the dollar store. the focus is one sharing more than giving or recieving.
the biggest source of holiday stress for me is my father, who is not-so-secretly-as-he-thinks-he's-being trying to convert my son to christianity. and for all the wrong reasons! he's trying to get him to think that theirs is the "real" holiday because they have more stuff, fancier decorations, permanent churches rather than self-created sacred circles, and more followers. he complains loudlt about acknowledging father winter or the holly king, right in front of my son. he makes me nuts.
blessings
this year i want to try making more of the gifts, and encouraging ds to make something too. paganism can sometimes be just as tangled up with consummerism, so i want to focus at least one of the sabbats on making or bartering.
one tradition the group i someties practice with has - we do a giveaway blanket for solstice. people will bring small unwrapped gifts - crystals, books, candles, whatever. everyone puts their stuff on the blanket or table and then takes the same number of things they brought. sometimes the gifts will have symbolic meanings, either to the giver or the one who chooses them, and sometimes they're just neat stuff, like trinkets from the dollar store. the focus is one sharing more than giving or recieving.
the biggest source of holiday stress for me is my father, who is not-so-secretly-as-he-thinks-he's-being trying to convert my son to christianity. and for all the wrong reasons! he's trying to get him to think that theirs is the "real" holiday because they have more stuff, fancier decorations, permanent churches rather than self-created sacred circles, and more followers. he complains loudlt about acknowledging father winter or the holly king, right in front of my son. he makes me nuts.
blessings
