Winter Solstice
The longest night of the year! I didn’t always love this night as much as I do now, but now it is one of my favorite times of year. It is a turning point- where we embrace the deep dark rest of winter and welcome the light slowly back.
When I got divorced, I remember feeling like that was a longest, darkest night of my life. But as Tupac said, “If you can make it through the night, there’s a brighter day.” It’s a celebration that even in the darkest, longest night, there is hope. The light always returns. I have definitely learned that as I have faced hardships and adversity in my life.
This year, I do not have my kids for the solstice and I’m bummed. But last year we really rocked it out! Here are a few ideas for celebrating with the kids.
First, a few days or maybe a week before, we made modge podge lanterns out of Mason jars. I didn’t do a step by step how to on this, but you get the idea from this YouTube tutorial. I put water and a little oil on top and used floating wicks for this project and told the story of Hanukah when we made these. It was around the same time, so that was nice to incorporate that holiday as well.
Anyway, so the night of the solstice, we lit the lanterns and ate dinner by candlelight. We talked about what to solstice is and told a couple of stories from around the world about the solstice. Here is a good book to go off of for these stories, but there are some beautiful children’s stories about winter and the solstice as well. We also talked about losing light and gaining light, and each member of the family talked about how other members of the family bring light into their lives. This was so special.
We did a Waldorf-inspired winter spiral, which I have no pictures of which I regret. But it was a very special experience, and we are going to do it after Christmas when we have time with the kids anyway. Click here for a great blog post on it with some additional resources as well.
We did a fire in the backyard and drank hot chocolate and talked about how we have used the dark night and how we will use the longer days.
It was a really special time for all of us, and I look forward to continuing these traditions whether I have the kids on the solstice or I have to wait a little bit or do it early. I’d like to dry some oranges and make some garlands and bird feeders this year!
This year, we have the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, a meteor shower, and the solstice all on one night! So there will be lots to look at in the sky.
