Does anybody have any tips on how to celebrate yule while living with people who don't accept your religion? I haven't been able to really celebrate in the past, and I want to this year. :(
Yule never was really "celebrated". It was more a time of resting, keeping warm and fed, during Winter, and waiting for the Spring.
In old times there would be a fire, of course.And a Yule log. This was the trunk of a tree, about fifteen feet long, and about 9 inches or so in diameter. It was meant to burn for twelve days, being "fed" into the fire a little each day. (It is where we get the tradition of the twelve days of Christmas from!). In the old days there would have been much eating and drinking, not so much a "celebration", but a time of not doing very much! Yule, these days of course,is very much mixed up with Christmas, even though it comes earlier.
I would say that if you sit by a fire, and drink a hot toddy, you would be "celebrating" Yule.
You might also contemplate the year just gone.Your achievements as well as your failures. And promise yourself to try to do better next year. That was also part of Yule in days gone by. In those days there were very few "cultivated" crops. Berries and fruits and nuts grew "wild", and were not cultivated as they are now! So, during Yule there would be "prayers to the Gods" for a better harvest next year.
If you can't celebrate because your family you can just thanks to The God and the Goddess.An old tradition said that you can decorate your home with candles.
Well Christmas celebration and Yule celebration are rather similar in terms of decorations and timeframe.
On the actual day you can meditate in your room, go for a walk outside, leave offerings outside under evergreens, you could wassail trees but I don't know how inconspicuous you want to be. On Yule, ask to make dinner for your family, and look up traditional meals. I don't know if you can find deer meat in your area but lamb and I think pork works too.
