By Kate Hodges
21st December 2022
DO YULE LIGHT
Tonight is the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year, and a time to celebrate reaching the middle of winter, a chance to reflect on the beauty and magic of the season before the chaos of Christmas. Find ideas for the start of Yule here and here and read Glennie Kindred’s ideas to appreciate the midwinter stillness here.
Perhaps you might head to your favourite spot to watch the sun rise or you might want to travel to a stone circle. Winter Solstice at Stonehenge is a magical celebration of the shortest day. There is free, managed open access to the site; a rare chance to get among the stones and witness them up-close. Get there well before sunrise and join the druids, revellers and curious watching the sun rise. Avebury is a slightly less crowded option, while the ceremony Orkney’s Standing Stones of Stenness is even more relaxed. Alternatively, why not visit a stone circle new to you
Cornwall’s Montol Festival is held yearly on December 21 in Penzance to celebrate the midwinter solstice. The town’s population dresses in mock formal clothes and masks and ‘guises’ – performs plays, skits, songs and dances. Guising guilds roam around pubs, waving animal skulls on poles, electing a Lord of Misrule and celebrating ‘old Christmas’. Take part in the Children’s Sundown Procession, then watch the burning of a sun effigy and finish with a serpent dance!
And tonight the streets of Brighton are lit by hundreds of hand-made paper lanterns and throb to the sound of samba drums at the annual Burning The Clocks parade. Defiant locals bring light and noise to their city on the longest night of the year, then fling their willow-and-parchment lamps on to a huge bonfire on Brighton beach. It’s a fiesta, but also a chance for contemplation as participants are invited to think about their community, the events of the closing year, and which direction they’ll choose for the upcoming twelve months.
EVENT WINTER WILDNESS
It’s easy to forget there’s a natural world at this time of year and stay cooped up at Christmas. So The Wildlife Trusts midwinter nature challenge, 12 Days Wild, is a breath of fresh air. Every day, families are encouraged to do one wild thing a day, whether that’s making a Christmas wreath for birds, walking off your Christmas dinner in the woods, or admiring the beauty of a starling murmuration at sunset. Sign up here
DO GAMES FOR A LAUGH
Christmas isn’t Christmas without some crazy party game action, but is it time to shake up your selection this year? We have some ideas here (we like the Beard game). Our all-time favourite family game is Musical Hats, which always ends in us all collapsed in heaps of laughter – find the instructions, along with a whole lot of others here. The Guardian also has guides to many other games – we particularly love their ‘blind’ selection, after dinner games and team games (Mummies is an old favourite of ours!)
MAKE GIFT GRIFT
Kids at a loose end in the holidays? Keep the peace in your household and create some last-minute extra presents at a gift-making session. We love the ideas collected here: tie dyed bookmarks, hand-printed cards, personalised notebooks and washi tape wooden bracelets. Alternatively, Martha Stewart’s ideas are, of course, chic, clever and stunning – try making gingerbread snow globes, colourful printed totes and hand-decorated biscuit tins.
RECIPE LUSH LEFTOVERS
Can we let you in on a secret? One of our favourite times of the festive season is just after Christmas; there’s no pressure, no expectations, just acres of space begging to be filled with cosy, fun things to do. We adore recycling our Christmas excess creatively. Find some brilliant ideas for uneaten Christmas pudding and cake here (don’t tell anyone, but we think Christmas pudding ice-cream is better than the hot version!). And there are some really tasty leftover cheese recipes here, for the bits of the board that no-one can face. Or use up your mountain of roast potatoes with these Mashed Potato Pancakes . Finally, Rebecca Oliver has come up with world-beating leftovers sandwich ideas here
BONUS IDEA
We normally try to avoid screens around Christmas, but if you have young children, it’s worth sitting down for five minutes on Christmas Eve to take a peek at the Google Santa Tracker. The company track the fellow in red and white via a real-time uplink from his personal GPS onboard his sleigh (we’re putting our concerns about privacy issues aside for the evening). Follow the trail here
While you’re looking upwards, why not watch the International Space Station flying overhead? Around Christmas, you might even hint it’s someone in a sleigh…
WHAT WE’RE EATING FESTIVE BREADS Festive breads have played a central role in religious feast days and seasonal celebrations for thousands of years. These breads are often highly flavoured using fresh eggs and butter, fruit and exotic spices. Here’s a selection. Get the recipe here
WHAT WE’RE READING This dire winter feels like wartime. But hope lies with communities helping themselves. From radical local energy projects to transport to volunteer libraries, incredible people are taking action into their own hands: “Beyond food, clothing and the kind of emergency help offered by “warm banks”, there lies a tangle of other provision that fills the gaps left by continuing austerity. When bus services are cancelled, grassroots groups often develop new community transport; if a library is threatened with closure, it may have to be run by volunteers.” Read more here
Happy winter holidays to you from all at The Green Parent! We wish you a peaceful, warm, and blissful family time this festive season.
