I like the special attention to modernizing practices. People can get so wrapped up in recreating things from a historical standpoint, even though it can be hard to execute in their circumstances. It makes it hard to enjoy the event. Taking a little history, balancing it with your life situation, and respectfully adding it to your celebrations makes everyone happy. (and if they get spicy, liberally apply the rules of heathen discourse.)

Whether Odin is Santa or not, we can all agree on one thing: I really need to a get a Yule goat.

As a Norwegian, I feel the need to insist on a couple of traditions: the first is ale: you should brew a wooden bathtub-ful of ale to share with friends, family and any visitors. And even if you can't (be bothered to) brew, sharing food and/or drink with any who visit (most definitely including any JW's, Christmas carollers, people who want to sell you something or ask for donations), even if it's just candy or gingerbread, is important. They're probably not Odin in disguise, but you never know. Better safe than sorry. And keep food out (no need to sprinkle blood, wrapped candy is fine) in case of uninvited midnight visitors who don't care about doors and walls. Keep some lights on for the same visitors.

What I like about ancient and heathen traditions/celibrations is how they connect time to nature and how they celibrate nature's part and power in keeping life. The whole cycle.

Each Winter Solstice my husband and I invite family, friends, and all who are interested to join us for a huge bonfire/bonfires and feast. We are in Wyoming so we have seen it snow over a foot of snow during the celebration and we've had temperatures as low at five below zero. But we always go out. The feast is pork ribs, beer cheese soup, etc. We make food offerings, drink mead and beer, read poetry about winter solstice, and at the conclusion we all gather around the bonfire and throw in a small clipping of new growth evergreen. This has become the most anticipated holiday for all who have attended in the past. I wish I could show you some pictures of the event because the fires and scene are incredible.

In Sweden it doesn't matter if you're a heathen or a Christian. The Yule goat ( julbocken) has its place next to the Christmas tree in pretty much every home and the Christmas ham is the centerpiece of every julbord.

I get my kids every other weekend. This year, that means I get them Christmas weekend and two weekends before that. The time before Yule, we're gonna have them put treats in their stockings for Sleipnir, and then they'll have gifts from Wōden (the Anglo-Saxon counterpart to Odin) to replace them by the time they come back Christmas weekend. It's a tradition we're starting this year. I also plan to read Beofeld's "Twas The Night Before Yule" (from the Wind in the Worldtree" blog) to my youngest before we stuff their stockings.

Yule regret some of those puns, Ocean. xD This video taught me a lot! I had admit I had that misconception of Yule being stolen by Christians, but hearing that Yule stole Christmas is a fascinating perspective. Thanks for digging deep into this Ocean.

I have taken Yule as an opportunity in the military to request leave for 12+ days to prepare and recover from Yule. The reason why, is I work in a 24hr/365days a year shop for the USAF and my career field traditionally only gives you Christmas or New Years off. This is my daughter’s first Christmas/Yule, and my open circle congregation is hosting a New Year’s Eve party. So I’m using the 12 days of Christmas/Yule as an opportunity to reconstruct an old tradition. I am a bit bummed to learn it’s not as historical but there’s a lot of eclectic practice around it. So I’m going to take a pinch of eclecticism with my Yule this year. We’ve decorated a tree, adored our alter with holiday decorations such as santa candle holders, Yule Goats, and Christmas scented candles. But I’m not sure what we’re going to do for all 12 days. There are some ancient Heathen sites close by to where I’m stationed at in Germany, so I do plan on making small pilgrimages to a couple of close by locations. But that won’t necessarily be available to me after I move in a couple of years. So I’m still working out what I’m doing besides a Yule feast with my friends.

As an engineer I highly value scientifically correct language, and it warms my Heathen heart to hear you say “the heat goes fluttering out the door” rather than something like “the cold comes rushing in the door”.

Most of the family isn't heathen, so we've been doing is having normal Christmas, then for Yule we basically have Second Christmas to keep things more approachable (minus the decorations and gifts). Double the feast, double the fun.

As a baby Heathen, I’ve been doing research on Yule and this is the best explanation by far. Thank you so much!

Last year I burned a small part of a log in my fireplace each night for 12 nights, being sure to keep one small piece (still under my bed for luck) to kindle this year's yule fire with. This was quite easy, since I had doused the log with red wine, and when I threw it on the fire, it went up with a roARing flame. So just burning it for 15 minutes each night was symbolic enough for me.

Also ain’t nobody stopping me from wearing an ugly Christmas(Yule) sweater. That shit’s here to stay.

I'm from Norway and we still do the julebord thing! And I know Sweden still loves the yule goat. And Finland does call Santa "Joulupukki". In Norwegian, it's "Julenissen". There's indeed a lot more emphasis on the food and presents here. Pinnekjøtt, juleribbe, juleskinke, grøt of various different kinds, those are just some of the foods I can think of off the top of my head. After the food and present openings, we sometimes play traditional types of games together. Board games, word games, card games, whatever. I know the Norse had board games too, so I don't see why they wouldn't pass the time doing some of that as well. Also, instead of that american way of having Santa Claus visit and leave presents while everyone is sleeping, we instead get our version of Santa personally visiting us during the celebrations and handing out the biggest presents to the children at the eve of yule. (Julaften! It's on the 24th.) (also, obviously that santa is someone in the family or even a neighbor who agreed to visit and dress up, but we don't tell the kids that)

Our Yule will consist of a morning trip to the woods with an offering of cranberries, peated Scotch, and a candle to be given up for Skadi, Odin (and Loki, to honor their pact) Freya, Thor, and Eir. Being an eclectic Norse/Celtic pagan I also find it proper to give offering to Cernunnos and the Fae spirits while in the woods. We have a Yule goat as well, however they can get a bit pricey, at least from the shop we found ours, to burn every year (and my partner and I love it too much) so it will stay as a decoration on our mantle. Have a blessed Yule, Ocean!❄

Just wanted to leave an aggressive hate comment. All seriousness though this was great, especially the bit of Christians keeping pagan traditions alive for us to use now. Very wholesome Yule tide goodness.

For a blot, I boil eggs and leave them in the wooded part of my yard for the possum along with any of the peelings from the dinner (apples, sweet potato, ect.). It's kinda funny, because the scraps we leave at the edge of the yard, but the eggs because I know the possum don't like coming into the yard so much I throw them into the trees. Last year, I introduced my son to this, and this year he is very excited to "yeet the eggs."

As a solo practitioner in a Christian family I will most likely be taking a portion of my Christmas dinner as an offering and a candle to the tree line behind my parents house and praying/meditating in hopes of returning before they realize I’m gone

I am a recently changed Christian to Heathanry and your channel has been such a blessing for me to learn about a religion that I feel the most connected to. So thank you 'thor' all that you do!

"Never seen a text so verbose in everything except for the part I was interested in" - ah, so the tradition which produced quite a bit of software documentation goes back much further than I thought.

So, less "Christians stole Yule" and more "certain Yule traditions were incorporated into Christmas via normal religious syncretism"

I am danish and i still live at home. My parents are very religious christians and not accepting of other religions, so they wouldn't like things like an alter or incense in my room, but i am not christian and christmas can be a hard time for me because of how closely my family ties it with christianity and my religious trauma. So this year i plan on putting a yule goat in my room and maybe find a way to make a tiny yule log with food (a little snack) for 12 days. I think it will help me to reassociate christmas with the pre-christian story that it has, especially since i am scandanavian myself so it is a part of me. Thank you for this video, it was very interesting and i always like learning about my ancestors.

This will be my first Yule fully embracing my Heathenry. For years I’ve left sacrifice in silence and I’ve never conducted a full ritual or had proper alters. Not that I was really in the broom closet but moreso because no one around me really cared. This year I have my wife who is heathen and our 9 month old daughter to teach these traditions to. I plan to make this my first full ritual on the solstice with my little family and I am so excited!

Thanks for the clarification on whether it was was a stolen. I've been able to let go of my anger from my past faith learning from all your videos. Thanks for all the help!

T'is the season to be jolly! And the word jolly apparently also comes from the Jól (through French, amusingly enough). Anyway, over here in Norway I pretty much do the same as everyone else (obvious exceptions aside: no nativity scene decorations, nor do I take the yearly visit to church that many take in december). Also there's no naming debate, since everyone still uses the (modern version of the) old name; Jul. Family gathering on the 23rd to eat rice porridge, and see who finds the almond and gets the prize. Another family gathering on the 24th with massive traditional dinner with pork (the name doesn't translate very well), then smaller gathering in the evening where we open presents and have some cookies and such. There's usually background music playing throughout on the 24th. On the 25th absolutely nothing happens. A bit of cleaning up in the kitchen maybe, but that's it. The 26th and 27th my family usually have luch gatherings with friends of the family. This has gotten rather interesting in later years, as the family of those friends have greatly expanded. Then it's somewhat business as usual until new years eve. The only thing that really sets me apart is that I try to, at some point in there, bring some baileys or such and head off to the local cemetary to share a quick drink with my family there. Three of my grandparents, and their parents, plus one of my cousins. I've even made sure to ask my parents, my grandma, and my aunt/cousins, about the alcoholic preferences/stances of my grandparents and cousin. Hard to say further back, but if any of them were specifically against alcohol I think I would have heard.

Yule for me is December 21st to January 1st. The 12 days of Yule.

I like that logic is applied to various theories. How refreshing to not just take history as authoritative, but to investigate the stories with both analysis and open mindedness.

Ooooh I can’t wait for this one!!! Yule is the holiday I look forward to the most. Might be latent Christmas lol, but Christmas is based off Saturnalia and Yule, so maybe it’s been Yule I’ve looked forward to all along. Once the whole Santa Clause magic thing wore off as I got older, I began to feel down around the holidays, even as a Christian celebrating Christmas. After I left Christianity, and was trying to convince myself I was an atheist, that “down in the dumps” feeling only got worse. Like I was missing out on something. Now that I celebrate Yule, that childlike holiday cheer is back with a vengeance! Looking forward to this video!

Thank you for making this video on a holiday that I love researching! And that ending tho lmao

Our family has been beset with really terrible calamities this year, so, just for comfort, I put up all my Yule decorations early. Mostly homemade, they have lots of silver and gold and sparkle to celebrate the return of the sun. And “Christmas “ lights are all over the place, and candles that look like birch, and evergreen.

We do Christmas with both our families around Christmas Eve/Christmas but we decided to celebrate Yule on our own either on the solstice or the Sunday closest to it. We exchange our gifts to each other, have our own mini-feast and have a small fire and give thanks to the ancestors and gods.

Matches wouldn't be invented for hundreds of years, so part of the Yule Log Celebration was to provide the participants with hot embers/coals to take home to start their hearth's fires with. The coals were carried in a tough turnip which is where our tradition of jack-o-lanterns came from.

My wife and I have Yule traditions, so far it’s just a big meal, with candles, but we are creating our own traditions

As a fan of puns, bad jokes, and dad jokes, I love that you love puns and dad jokes as much as I do

Love you so MUCH Ocean! Hope you are taking care of yourself well this holiday season. 🙏🙏

I was wondering about this on the Hellenism subreddit the other day. What excellent timing.

With the whole yule log bit, i always just skirted around the how silly it sounded having a tree trailiing out the door and would just take a hunk of oak and bring it inside for days of yule. We also decorate it and make it look pretty with candles and stuff then on the last day we would burn it.

I’m primarily of Irish Paganism, tho I love to learn of Heathenry and worship some deities of Heathenry (Loki, Hela, & Freya followers where you at?) and Gods I love how many Heathens, Celts, and so many more coincide with Yule and other holidays. I’ve got to ask, what are your thoughts on Yule celebrated amongst Celtic Pagans or hell even Wiccan tradition? Love your stuff man.

I have finally caught up with all your videos!! Well worth watching all of them 👌

I have 3 Yule goats that are now displayed in my home. 🐐 I'm the only one who believes in & is drawn to Heathenry so it's been a difficult journey so far. But I won't give up. I'm still new to everything & still learning. 😁❤🖤

The part about leaving food offerings made me remember the modern Scandinavian custom of leaving porridge for Santa Claus. Just like in Ibn Fadlan's account, if some animal eats it, he is said to be the one who did. For some context, Santa Claus is not seen primarily as a Christian Saint, but as a special kind of tomte (more specifically the jultomte). Tomtar are a kind of land spirit mostly associated with the farm. If you treat them well, they'll keep the farm safe, (and conversely if you don't respect them they'll f you up) and because of this they've traditionally been given offerings at different occasions. (they're first mentioned in the middle ages if I remember correctly) Anyway, the jultomte grew out of this folkloric being and became popular around the turn of the 20th century, replacing the julbock as the gift-giving mascot of Christmas. This video made me wanna take up the porridge tradition again. :)

This was Fantastic, thank you! Learned so much. The discord has also been very welcoming! ❤

You know one thing i alwys found a shame is people not celebrating certain holidays because of certain other enfluences. I personaly love the idea of yule & christmas (which has been together for a long time) traditions mixed together & same thing goes with every holiday we celebrate. Deep down holidays are to be celebrated mainly for our existence & thankfulness to our family, community, gods & etc. & with that we are all related no matter our differences. One thing for sure our ancestors in all cultures especially in hard times would not let anything go to waste, i can see if there was sacrifices to the gods it would be carefully planned in order to benefit the community. Anyways, Happy Holidays everyone!

Thanks for making this video man. Just started my path not too long ago and was wanting to know more about Yule!

This was great, thank you! I was chuckling a good few times throughout as well haha. Blessings to you and your folk.

As a person who grew up in the redwood forest. I thank you for referencing the beautiful Sequoia, though the coastal redwoods in my area (Humboldt pride!) are bigger... That's all I have to say. (I fully accept I'm a redwood-loving dork.)

I appreciate you for providing the deep dive in-depth history of Yule.

We will always keep true to our Yuletide traditions. Thank you for sharing this information.

Great video! I'm curious to hear your take on something. I've heard in some places that there's this idea that holidays like Jol/Yule was celebrated on the full moon after the new moon after the solstice. I haven't found anything concrete, source wise, but I think it's interesting nonetheless.

Another solid video. Ocean have a good yule brother and to all my fellow pagans a happy yule season to you as well and may the gods bless you all !

Our family Yule is always a fire, which we light with part of the previous yule log. read some of the Norse stories, while we eat some of the falls meat harvest usually elk. and spend time around the fire

excellent vid as always, happy warm and delicious Yule to you!

nice video which summarises the history of this celebration quite nicely

Omg so interesting! And I belted out a laugh when you said just stand up. That was awesome.

ocean wearing a santa hat and a mjolnir is the visual manifestation of my personal aesthetic

Loving the intro.

I loved this video. Thank you for all the time you spend researching and thoughtfully creating these for us! I laughed when I saw "King Alfred, King of Wessex" because I'm a particular fan of The Last Kingdom, so here are my questions: What do you think of TLK and other such "Viking" shows and would you consider doing a video rating your fav ones/or least favs based on historical accuracy (I know that's pretty iffy, we still don't know a lot) or whatever random criterion you choose? I think it'd be very fun and entertaining! One of the reasons I like TLK so much is how the writers incorporate and treat ancient paganism (I also just love Uthred and his friends going on fun adventures). Ok, I'll stop here because I could rant and rave about TLK for hours. Anyway, thanks again! Love your channel!

Christmas stole Yule (X) Yule stole Christmas (✓) Gotta love this.

First video from your channel I have watched and I really like it! You explain things in a very clear and interesting way. Looking forward to checking out your other videos, too!

We’ve started making yule logs to burn on “Christmas”. It makes my crafty heart happy and moves the celebration away from my mother’s version, which was forcing us to sing happy birthday to Jesus before we could open our presents.

Thank you for sharing. I appreciate your teaching

2 more hours I've got can't wait to see this (edit: thank you for the heart ocean keltoi)

Interesting topic and I was recently discussing the pagan origins of Christmas/Yule celebrations with my co workers. Thanks for your detailed information and insight on Nordic Yule traditions.

I'm new to heathenry and this will be my first ritual that I do ever with many more to come

Wonderful Video!

Very cool and very informative!

Great video, Ocean.

Now i really want a yule log. Thanks ocean. Im going to make one rn.

One thing is for sure, Odin is no Santa.

I'm just a baby pagan but I became one because of my love for Christmas. Celebrating Yule is the one part of my practice I feel confident about and can feel secure in my practice because, via being raised Christian, I do have that "brought up in it" knowledge of how to do the things. I hope one day the rest of it feels just as easy. Thanks for your videos.

Just discovered and subscribed your channel - I really enjoyed the video. On my Yule Tree, which is a real douglas fir tree, I have a small statue of Odin and his Ravens at the top of the tree instead of an angel or star. I also have over 50 bottles of mead that I made myself, waiting in a cool cellar, of which I plan to spice a few of them for the season.

Late to the Yule as always... 'Wisdom is welcome wherever it comes from". Subscribed, thanks. Wisdom is welcome wherever it comes from

In Romanian & Moldavian culture we also have the goat costume and dance during the Winter celebrations, but only now I understand that it has obvious connections to Yule... 🤩

Thank you again for you research, truly help me has a new pagan to put some base on those old ritual. Can't wait to reconstruct a medieval potlock with my friend! Joyeux Jule!

What a lovely video presentation! I love it as a history fan, and as a pagan.

This was fantastic and for anyone who might still be confused, just take a break, meditate on the concepts, then watch again. Yule get it eventually. I believe in you.

I like your storytelling style 👍🏻

Ocean, God of Puns.

That forest joke got me

Thank you for all the information on yule and the norse religion, it has helped me with my journey in learning more about being a young norse pagan.

Chilling with some meat at the fire in the middle of snowy woods is exactly how I'm going to celebrate yule. Sounds like paradise

A log only burns as fast as you feed it into the fire, we often build fires with three or more logs converging at one point instead of chopping them into smaller logs. Not inside ones house though, so I’m not sure if you had a hall with an open pit fire maybe… 🤔

wishing you a Merry Yule Halsa Valang

I have been seeing your videos for some time. And found this one very good. I liked the ending very much saying we are in this modern time and such can modify the rituals and ceremonies to mirror our thanks to the Gods and Goddesses. As a sidenote we in Puerto Rico love to celebrate Christmas/Yule with a traditional cooking of Pernil which is the pigs shoulder and I quote "what we call “ham” is the upper rear part of the pig's leg). While pernil can certainly be made with ham, it's actually more commonly made with pork shoulder" so there are similarities in the whole world. I that k you for the video and all the other ones that come in the next year. May the Gods and Goddesses of all pagan faiths in the world bless thee and thine.

The eat dripping as ritual you eat later sounds interesting and probably no reason to not adopt that to ell meals. Ocean has problm with the wood :O

me and my sister are totally going to make a Yule goat, great vid Ocean

"Stolen" or "integrated" and/or "adopted"? Nice hat, brör! XD I dig it. All said, this is a good video, and your delivery is great!

My family and I have a Yule celebration every year, along with other major pagan holidays. We start with gifts given and thanks to Odin, then later in the day have a Yule feast, set a fire in the fireplace, make offerings of our meal and mead to the gods and ancestors, leave carrots for Sleipnir with my sons, and finally sit around the fire and tell tales of some of the important women of our family history and mythology in honor of mother's night. Cheers to all you celebrate that which came before and teach their children how to do so. Ocean Keltoi, wonderful video as always. I appreciate your research and insight, as well as, your humor.

I always wonders why my family used to have a small bonfire on Xmas thankyou for the vid I was wondering what some of the old traditions were

Ay, ancient heathen Santa. Also, I'm thinking of celebrating one night for each deity in my pantheon

First time viewer, glad powers that be! I'm intrigued on your view of traditions, bring back to light. I've been trying to find a traditions my grandmother and great grandmother practiced. Greens( a cluster of tree cuttings and mistletoe ) placed in the attic tied with red wool yarn. What I vaguely remember new greens were re placed on 21 December. Do you have any information? Yes I really don't Agee with a HUGE tree hanging out the front door, na da. Especially if it was so cold sometimes chickens and goats were brought in to keep from freezing. Much less people.

Yule never know how much you missed hearing Oceans puns until he drops another video after a month...

I don't know why but now I feel like you dealing with the headache of the Norse lunisolar calendar for any heathens who would wanna use that (Like finding when Þorrablót would be) cause you clearly LOVE dealing with the perception of time as I can see from the leap-second revelation LOL. Also, love the video; keep it up.

"If you get lost in an Icelandic forest, just stand up." Man, that's cold. [Loki said that]

Man, that last bit, I never thought about it that way.

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.👍👍

Good content my friend.

the irish druids celebrated the winter solstice from 500 B.C.. they build newgrange, where they and still do celebrated today by pagans, and heathens as well probably.

I study many aspects of human spirituality, across many faiths and traditions. This was a well done video, consulting many sources, as well as a discussion of how such sources may be problematic. Additionally, I like the bit about adapting tradition to modern life. If faith and tradition don’t serve people where they are now, those faiths and traditions will cease. You just earned a subscriber.