Solstice Night Blanket Fort Party

[fullupwithfire]

Welcome One and All!

Tonight, at least up in the northern hemisphere, is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year. My family tradition is for whoever can make it to spend the night awake, holding a vigil for the return of the light and the rebirth of the Sun King. Tonight I offer an open space to anybody who'd like to join me, whether for the entire night or just a little while, to come join in the cuddle pile and await the dawn.

(And if your version of joining in is setting up two feet away and offering good vibes from afar, you're just as welcome.)

So come on in! We've got every kind of blanket you can think of, fuzzy or not, oversized or tiny, weighted or as thin as you can get. We've got stories and songs, crafts and games, dancing spaces, roaring fires, and whatever else you need to get through the dark. We've got sleeping spaces and quiet spaces and loud spaces alike. We've got cider on the stove and eggnog in the fridge and coffee on the counter, snacks of every kind and room to bring your own. We've got hugs and hearts and kind words to remind you that you're here, and we're glad that you're here, and the light will come back.

I'll throw up a couple spots for sharing on a theme here and there -- songs and stories and if anything else comes to mind -- and you should feel free to float your own. Make yourselves comfortable. Have a happy Solstice, everyone. ♥

Comments

Radio Corner

[fullupwithfire]

Come and sit by the radio in the corner, plug yourself in and enjoy something holiday-appropriate. Or not-so-holiday-appropriate, but happy-making. Or share something you're spending your night with.

You can start yourself off with the most appropriate Solstice song that doesn't know it's a Solstice song.
(It's Here Comes the Sun.)

Re: Radio Corner

[dreamerinsilico]

Not quite as on-the-nose as "Here Comes the Sun," but this one still feels right for the night, to me. A good song for preparing to move out of this year and into a new, bolder one - "Firebird" by Ashbury Heights.

And then because I went looking for "Cold Sunshine" and found this one, which I hadn't heard before, the entirely on-the-nose "Solstice Night" by S.J. Tucker.

Re: Radio Corner

[fullupwithfire]

I am un-headphones and will have to listen to the first one in a bit, but anything for moving into a bolder year is good to me. Your description of it actually reminds me of another fire-themed song, that hits me in places like that in very personal ways: Vixy and Tony's "Burn It Down".

I love SJ Tucker's witchy stuff! Solstice Night is so pretty, as is Cold Sunshine. :)

Re: Radio Corner

[tomakeanoffer]

*joins the S.J. Tucker club*

Also, fuck I've been listening to Firebird on and off on repeat for the last few days and I am *in love*. Firebirds and phoenixes have a special place in my heart and this song hits my brain in a really, really good way. Thank you so much for sharing.

Re: Radio Corner

[fullupwithfire]

I meant to come back and forth through the night, I had Themes and everything, and then Youtube kept crashing my computer, so now I shall condense.

The Wintery Queen (my favorite Yule song; unfortunately my favorite version does not exist on the internet)

Light is Returning - Mothertongue

Morning Glow - Pippin

The Atheist Christmas Carol - Vienna Teng

Winter's Carol - Tori Amos

On Midwinter's Day - Damh the Bard

The Fairest Maid - Mothertongue

And some silly ones/Christmas carol parodies:

Santa Clause is Pagan Too

Wiccan Wonderland

Mother Bertha's Coming to Town

Re: Radio Corner

[dreamerinsilico]

I was literally scanning down this list and thinking "...I should link Santa Claus is P-- oh they already did of course haha." xD

Telling Tales Of Time Gone And Coming

[tomakeanoffer]

Come sit by the fire an tell the stories of times gone by. Tell us about traditions you carry with you, stories from past holidays that make you happy. Maybe tell us about things you want to start doing and hey, maybe start doing it this year, f you can!

A past memory: We used to have parties all the time around the holidays. My family was big on Christmas Eve stuff and we would invite a whole slew of people over, eat lots of food, and open gifts at midnight. It was always a fun time, if not occasionally stressful and while I would never keep the party tradition going myself, I appreciate how open and willing to take anyone in my family was.

Re: Telling Tales Of Time Gone And Coming

[dreamerinsilico]

My family also has had... a progression of party traditions. My maternal grandfather's birthday was actually Christmas Eve, so when I was a kid, we always made the 8-hour drive to where my mom's parents lived in Virginia a few days before Christmas, and there was always a big birthday celebration for Pop. One year, it turned into a big family reunion thing, even; we rented out the development's club house (they lived in a small condo right on the Chesapeake Bay) for it and there were... a *lot* of people.

For a few years when I was in high school, Pop and Gran came to spend Christmas with us, instead, and the party was lower-key, but I always loved making his birthday cake. And being home for Christmas turned out to be my favorite thing ever, the first time we did it, because it meant I had access to a computer, and didn't have to sleep on the floor!

When we started staying home, we also started going to our next-door neighbor's Christmas Eve party. My parents don't still live in that house, but we've kept going to that party, and I love it. All my grandparents are dead, now, but our old neighbor's like another grandfather to me.

This won't go on forever, and sometimes I wonder what it'll be like in a decade or two. I'm not the sort of person to be the keeper of that kind of tradition, either, but I think I'll still want something to mark the holidays, even if it's small.

Re: Telling Tales Of Time Gone And Coming

[tomakeanoffer]

Aww, that's really sweet, tbh. I'm just not a huge party person most of the time but I think that, if we ever find ourselves with people who don't have anywhere to go near the end of the month, I'll see if they'd want to come over for a night and have warm drinks and share a meal.

Re: Telling Tales Of Time Gone And Coming

[fullupwithfire]

That is a lovely series of traditions. ♥

I understand that feeling. My mother's a very big fan of holidays -- not just winter ones, holidays in general, though especially the Halloween-to-Christmas run at the end of the year -- and I'm not always in a place where I want that big a thing, and also I intend to one day not live close enough that I can be around every single holiday; but on the other hand, doing nothing at all always feels kind of... sad. I'm hoping I can find a balance somewhere that doesn't feel like nothing, but doesn't drain me entirely to put together.

Re: Telling Tales Of Time Gone And Coming

[cosmolinguist]

My mom's side of the family have always celebrated on Christmas Eve. My grandparents always hosted; my grandpa just loved the holiday and loved everybody being there. He handed out the presents from under the tree.

We didn't get presents until after all the dishes were done and leftovers put away from the big dinner. I was never so keen to help with chores as I was then. And I'm still drying dishes, almost 30 years later, because it was the job I was first given as the first thing I could be trusted with. And after presents, now everybody has to play games but when we were too little and had to go to bed, the adults played cards and yelled and laughed and pretended to get mad but it was all in fun. I like those memories more than I like having to play games now.

Re: Telling Tales Of Time Gone And Coming

[tomakeanoffer]

I get that. I have nothing against holidays with my family (well, sort of) but the memories are always sweeter than the reality, you know? For me, the marking of the holiday actually felt like something. Now it just kind of feels like another day in which I have to exist around people I might not want to be around.

Which is more depressing than I intended it to be.

WHat's the tastiest thing you've ver had around the holidays?

Re: Telling Tales Of Time Gone And Coming

[teaotter]

Many years ago now, my partner's parents noticed that a fox had had its kits in their backyard in the middle of winter. Being the kind of people they are, they worried that the mother and kits wouldn't get enough to eat.

So they started putting out food for the fox. And because they are very schedule-oriented people, they put the food out every night at 11 pm.

Foxes are smart, and they notice when the food keeps coming.

At this point, we're pretty sure the fox who comes around is the original fox's grand-kit. It doesn't come every night, but every night that I'm here for Christmas I crouch at one of the upstairs windows in the dark and wait to see a fox.

It's one of my favorite parts of Christmas.

Re: Telling Tales Of Time Gone And Coming

[silveradept]

Presents-wise, there was always "one can be opened on Christmas Eve, the rest must wait until the day of, when it is properly time and the extended families have gathered in their respective places." And usually a very frenetic round of "everyone contribute a gift under this amount, pick a number, pull a gift from the pile, unwrap it, and then decide if you want to keep it or exchange it with someone else's unwrapped gift."

That's not usually the thing that makes memories. That would be the Mass Dash - I have an uncle who is a now-retired Catholic priest, but while he was active, the night of the 24th and day of the 25th would look something like this:

1. Christmas Eve service in the church nearest to home...unsurprisingly, once there were enough family members who played musical instruments, we ended up being the musicians for that particular service.

2. Leave home church, find open Chinese restaurant nearby. Eat food so as to be sustained.

3. Drive to the church where the uncle will be having services. Often in snow and on roads that were in varying states of plowed and safe to drive on. Much fun had by all.

4. Small snacks in the rectory before the service, which became more of a "Midnight Mass at 10pm" as time went on and the average age of the parishoner got older.

5. Service number two. Thankfully, only singing rather than fuller performance. Also, a specific shout-out from the altar because family.

6. Food and drinks (usually some amount of soft and less soft drinks, along with a sampling of all the foodstuffs given by the parishoners to the uncle that he can't and doesn't want to try eating and drinking by himself).

7. Dispersal to sleeping spaces, to get up and come back together for more drinks, food, and presents on the day of.

It's different now, being so far away, and also with the retired priest and the not really having been a practicing Catholic for a reallty long time, but I have retained the "find somewhere that's open and have Chinese on Christmas Eve" part of the tradition.

And the opening of one present a day early.

Re: Telling Tales Of Time Gone And Coming

[fullupwithfire]

As I said starting this post out, but for my family, Yule night is a vigil. We try to go outside and watch the sun go down, we spend the night awake if anybody can manage it, and then at sunrise we go outside to welcome the light and the Sun King back. We bake bread overnight, and after the sun comes up, we have warm drinks and warm bread, and then everybody meanders to bed.

We've gotten out of this in recent years, now that the kids are all at least in their older teen years, but sitting around for stories was always one of my favorite parts of Yule. I really miss it, to be honest; even though it was the same couple of stories every year, it was always nice and comforting to sit there and listen.

As Christmas goes -- I outlined this upthread, but every year on Christmas Eve, we would have the traditional Christmas Eve presents. The rest of them were for the morning, but my mother would get us a book, and a new pair of pajamas; we'd wear the PJs in the morning for presents and pictures, and I'd generally spend my night curled up with the book. It's actually how I got into my first fandom -- my uncle got me the first two HP books one year -- and it was always a good memory.

Holiday Food

[dreamerinsilico]

I talked with my mom about cookie-baking plans tonight, so that's been on my mind. Let's talk about special food we enjoy around the holidays, whether it's something that Always Must Be Made, or just particular plans for this year, or special things from years past.

My family used to make a peculiar type of sugar cookie flavored with anise (what's used in liquorice), and decorate them fancifully. We haven't done in the past couple of years, though, because they are a lot of work, and it's harder to get 20- and 30-somethings to get quite as enthusiastic about spending hours decorating than it was kids/teens. I don't think it's happening this year, but I'm kind of playing with the idea of surprising my mom with a batch next year. A *small* batch, because I always go very high-effort with my decorating, but I know she'd be delighted.

Re: Holiday Food

[teaotter]

When I was a kid, my dad was in the military, so we knew people from all over. Our Christmas menu grew as we made new friends.

We used to make lumpia -- a Filipino egg-roll. My mom would make the wrappers at home, because there was nowhere to buy them. She made a paste out of flour and water and painted it onto a hot skillet with a pastry brush. It always amazed me, that something so liquid would become a solid wrapper.

I also grew up with Polish poppy seed rolls as a dessert. I haven't made them since my partner was diagnosed with a gluten allergy, but I've been thinking that I might try one of the gluten-free recipes I've found on the internet (maybe this one. They're a huge amount of work, but I loved them.

Re: Holiday Food

[tomakeanoffer]

Aww, that's lovely!

For a few years there, I made rum balls for the holidays and one year, I even made peppermint bark.

This year, I'm making a variety of cookies for a New Years family reunion...thing. And also more rum balls because my mother is demanding them this year. Luckily I don't have to start baking those until after my mom arrives here later this month but yeah, that's gonna be a thing.

[fullupwithfire]

Mmm, anise cookies -- I've never had them homemade but I love them store-bought. That sounds like a sweet idea for a surprise. ♥

We have a few traditions with both baking and meals. Solstice is ham with pineapples and cherries and cloves for dinner. My mother loves to bake so we make a bunch of cookies, but one of the main things I associate with the holidays is rosettes -- light and crispy fried cookies that you put powdered sugar on. We're not really having them this year; I tried to make them, and couldn't quite get the hang of it. Maybe next year.

Re: Holiday Food

[silveradept]

Cheesecake is the dessert of the season, usually because in the trips outlined above in stories, there was always a sampler cheesecake that needed help getting polished off (as was the bottle of Crown Royal whiskey) and that was the thing I always remember liking the best out of the options put out when I was younger.

And also, the tradition of the dinner meal being Chinese from somewhere local, because it was the only dinner place open when we were doing the Mass Dash.

[alatefeline]

*sits by the fire for a while, listening*

[tomakeanoffer]

*approaches carefully, bringing cinnamon cookies and warm buttered cider, offering out to you by setting it near and purring softly*

[fullupwithfire]

*sits nearby with a blanket and two cups of tea, offering a cup if you'd like, and also an arm to you if you'd like to curl up and be cuddle. take one or both, they're both here for you*

Story Pile

[fullupwithfire]

Some of my favorites for the long night:

A Visit to Mother Winter (PDF)

The Oak and Holly King (there are two versions of this; the audio one is for the Winter Solstice)

The Yule Fairies (this is... so very much a kid's story, but it's been part of my life for most of it, and it's very nostalgic)

Morning glow is here, at last

[fullupwithfire]

The longest night is over and sun is reborn!



(At least here it is; results may vary depending on location.)

Thanks for coming and spending the night with me, my dears. ♥ May the rest of the year be a delight and a rest, and next year bring nothing but good.

The blanket fort doesn't close just cause the sun is up, so feel free to hang around, discuss, cuddle, and do whatever you'd like.


*sets out breads and breakfasts and fresh coffee*
*finds a corner by the fire to curl up and take a nap*