decorating by the season

[CloeOtter]

As a hedge wytch I am more interested in decorating ideas or practices for and by the season. I notice as I look for inspiration out and about that many pagans decorate according to the next Sabbat. In our home and life decorating by the season is easier for us as a family and feels more natural to me. Every year the seasons turn on their own time not when the calender says it is so. Thoe we participate in our pagan community sabbats out side the home, we honor the seasons as we feel them and enjoy them in our home. I change the Altar and what I can about the house to reflect the season out side. We have only had our own place for about a year & a half, we are just starting our own traditions. Plus we have been busy with baby #1 and now with baby #2 rushing in to our lives. I am feeling a need to have our own traditions for decorating and sharing with our little ones as they grow.

I guess I am sharing and asking if the sabbats lead your lives too when it comes to decorating your home or have you created your own traditions? If you have ideas for decorating a home for say Winter as we in the northern hemisphere are experiencing would you please share ???

I also am considering being less involved with public sabbats this coming year as I feel that many of the rituals are very wiccan in structure, which lovely in its own way but is not my path. Plus always seem to not quite flow with the energy privet celebration have. The sabbats do not stur me the way the season transitions do, nor the seasons them selves. I feel more energy and connections as I celebrate when I feel it is the right like during or after the first or 2nd snow of the Winter Season or when the First leaves fall in Autumn or start to change color. There are also a times during the seasons but not usually for me do they fall on a sabbat.
I hope I have made some sense and I wonder if any of you have similar experiences or practices???

[Nitefalle]

When I moved to the Northeast, I became very aware of how aligned the Sabbats are to the seasons, for me, and so I reflect that in my practices. My rituals always focus on the season that I am celebrating and Nature, as I do not follow the Wiccan God/Goddess mythos. For Yule, I am celebrating the beginning of true winter, what I call the Dreamtime, when we draw inwards and let our souls rest and hibernate (as much as possible!). It's a time to appreciate the loved ones in our lives, as those bonds of love and warmth are what get us through the dreary, dark months until Spring. I may use some "christmas" decorations, but that is because they are readily available and what I am used to. I use lots of solar imagery, as well, and just have fun with it. My group makes wishes for the new year coming up and give offerings of thanks for the past year.
In terms of the "celtic fire festivals" (not the most accurate term), I usually try and align it with what I feel is the most appropriate moon phase, since there are no mathematically figured calendar dates of a solar/celestial event (like the solstices & equinoxes). Sometimes I don't really *feel* it until I am in the moment of ritual, sometimes I'll have a more private celebration (not with my small group) when I really do feel it in my gut. It just depends.

I also have a seasonal altar in my kitchen that I change over with each big season. It is just simple imagery (as my boyfriend is not pagan and his family doesn't know): candles in seasonally appropriate holders, founds objects from outside (pinecones, fruit, stones, feathers, etc.), a cloth underneath it all and a desk fountain.

[CloeOtter]

Thank you Nitefalle for sharing :smile:
I know how its when you can not be as open about your spiritual side in your own home either do to not being able to share or respecting others beliefs. I also like to use found objects from nature. I like to sketch and do a few crafts to have out for the whole Winter season and bring out my winter faery statues.

[Tanya]

I have a big storage tub with decorating stuff for each season. I've only been where I am for 2 years, so I'm still building too

my goal for each tub is to have:
seasonaly colored or decorated altar cloths
seasonal candles
seasonal table clothes and napkins
decorations, and accouterments.

so:

Yule:
Christmas tree decorations of deer, musical instuments, holly, and birds
fairy lights
red and green candles
2 table clothes, 1 with holy and forest animals, the other with holly, books and gold bells and matching napkins
Thai deer sculpures set with little peices of colored glass which are the center piece for Yule
red and green garland and holly garland
handmade stockings
my chicken collection

Imbolc:
a hand made (by me) altar cloth embroderied with Inuit stylized polar bears and bear paws
Table cloth with snow drop pattern
white candles
batery opperated window candles
an embrodered (by me) wall hanging with a ground hog dancing on it
(OK Imbolc is my favorite holiday)

Eoster:
An embrodered altar cloth that's pale blue with flowers (got at a yard sale for a buck!)
And embrodered blue table cloth with little yellow flowers,
A Pink Thai cotton table cloth and a wild flora one from Bali
pastel candles
My collection of wooden, stone and pasanky eggs
my collection of rabbit sculptures
easter pictures for the walls (rabbits od course)

Lady Day (I'm not really focused on May Day yet)
Red table cloth with insects on it
White linnen table cloth
red and white candles


Litha:
gold silk placemats and altar cloths
A cotton table cloth with gold and brown embrodery of the sun
gold/ yellow candles
tree ornaments that are all stone fruit and insects (don't ask,.. we live in the southeren hemisphere..so we have to have it look a little Christmassy or my 4 year old would cry!)

Lughnassa: (not very developed yet)
I usually keep out my Litha stuff all summer.. looking for grain themed stuff to add to the box

Mabon:
Table cloth and napkins with apples and grapes
wall hanging featuring deer, nuts and apples
cornicopia
brown and purple candles

Samhain:
brown and orange candles
my pumpkin carving tool


As I said, I'm still building these kits as I see stuff that's appropriate...
coupled with these is always a lot of feasting: I have a lovely book called the celtic folklore cookbook but for each. I'm happy to share recipes that are in my family tradition as well:

Yule:
Ham, stollen, cookies, pumkin soup and mashed root crops, eggnog and Gluvine

Imbolc:
Milk dishes.... and cheese dishes, salmon, ... bitter early greens (sometimes I do a cheese and smoked salmon platter) and we like Hot Buttered Rum for this holiday or Chai, Hot chocolate, Irish coffee, White Russians.. etc.

Eoster:
Lamb, asparagus, eggs, Hot Goddess Buns, rabbit shaped cookies

Beltaine:
Usually the first cook out of the year... featuring always "Strawberries in Maywine" or "Happy Pooh Stawberries"
lots of fresh green salds

Litha
green bean salads, and tomato salads, pasta salad, and usually carved cold ham (because its HOT here)

Lughnassa
All grains... usually we have a corn roast, I bake tons of breads, we have a cook out and wash it down with lots of beer (barley.. got to be true to the traditions... its a moral responsibility!) and of course berry cake

Mabon:
Since we are in the South, this is when we have 'thanksgiving" with all the usuals, but we have apple pie not pumpkin. Always red wine and apple cider are on the table for this

Samhain:
"The Slaughter" always pork with apples and root crops and pumpkin pie or mince meat, and Glue vine


I try to decorate with flowers too... basically what I can get at the timeof year that's the right color... I like to buy potted plants then plant them in my garden when the season has past... but for some I cut from my garden... it depends on what's around.

so :
yule:
evergreens

imbolc:
snaow drops, solomon's seal or forced white bulbs

Eoster:
tulips, hyaciths, daffodils

Beltaine:
Roses

Litha:
Sunfowers

Lughnassa:
dry grass arrangements

Mabon:
goldenrod and asters, or use arrangements of fruit

Samhain:
Mums and arrangements of squashes and indian corn

[Sionnach le Fey]

Tanya, you've inspired me :) Those are some good ideas.

When I move out, I'm definitely plan on decorating my home around the seasons, with all the appropriate flowers, herbs, food, colours etc, complete with a seasonal altar.

[CloeOtter]

Thank you both for sharing and adding to this thread. Tanya your list looks like a great collections so far :smile:

[Tanya]

its a work in progress.. further complicated with that its not YULE here right now.. so i have to think about Yule decorations 6 months in advance... but I just got some candle holders with deer on them for next year, and lots of ginger scented candels for Litha right now... and since its Litha, some gold swagging for 'christmas ' decorations

[Mahren]

There isn't much seasonal decorating at my house anymore, maybe because my siblings and I are all teenagers. At around this time of year we would have had a wreath, wind stockings and lights by now! But we have a new tradition now: along with our christmas tree we get a smaller tree, put it on our porch and decorate it with lights. It's very Yule-ish, actually, but I keep that to myself.

Sabbats still stump me. I don't really feel comfortable with the wiccan sabbat myth or putting a diety into that structure to make it work. I'm starting to feel the sabbats are more for celebrating nature in its current state. Like Nitefalle said, the Northeast allines well with the seasons (freezing winter, boiling summers). My Yule is separte from my Christmas, Yule is for quiet, beauty of winter, light ect. Christmas is much more secular, though I do go to church with my family on Christmas Eve.

It's a process, I'm still trying to figure things out.

[Caitlin.ann]

I decorate by the season moreso than the holiday as well. Right now since I live in my parents' home (who are evangelical Christians) I have to decorate without much symbology and I only decorate in my room. For the autumn months I decorate with orange candle holders, gords on my altar, orange and black candles, halloween decor, etc. For the winter months I have set out red and green candle holders and hung garland over my window. Thats about as much as I can do right now in the way of decorating for the seasons, although I plan to add a lot more stuff this spring. :)