Who Owns Winter? A Slightly Sparkly History of the Holiday Season

Once upon a winter that felt way too long, humans looked up at the sky, noticed the sun going to bed earlier every day, and quietly wondered:

“Uh… is it coming back?”

Winter has always been a season of low light and high feelings. Before there were nativity sets, menorahs, kinaras, or inflatable snowmen, there were terrified humans, long nights, and the desperate hope that the sun would not abandon them.

This is the story of how people tried to make friends with the dark and coax the light back. It is a story of bonfires, revolts, feasts, gods, goddesses, one very overbooked baby in a manger, and a future fairy named Tinkerbell who cheerfully refuses to let any one religion own the season.

Welcome to The Church of Tinkerbell’s guided tour of winter holidays

starring Yule, Saturnalia, Hanukkah, Yalda, Dongzhi, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Christmas, and you.

1. When The Sun Looked Like It Was Dying

Long before anyone had climate-controlled houses, the winter solstice was a serious problem.

The days shrank. The nights stretched. Food stores ran low. Animals disappeared or hibernated. Humans did what humans always do when we stare into the void:

We told stories.
We lit fires.
We ate as if joy itself were a survival strategy.

All over the Northern Hemisphere, cultures noticed the same turning point: the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. After that night, the sun starts to climb again, little by little.

This turning of the light is the shared backbone behind many winter holidays. If winter were a movie, the solstice would be the scene where everything looks lost, then the music changes key.

Nobody owned that moment. Not then, not now.

2. Yule: Evergreen Stubbornness In The Snow

Let’s begin in the old Germanic and Norse lands, where winter was not cute and cozy. It was “hope you do not starve” serious.

What was Yule?

Yule (Old Norse “jól”) was a midwinter festival historically observed by Germanic peoples. It is widely understood as one of the oldest winter solstice celebrations.[2][4] It marked midwinter, honored gods and ancestors, and wrapped itself in symbols of survival and rebirth.

Key features often associated with Yule:

Evergreens brought into homes as signs of life that refused to die in winter.[2][5][6]
The Yule log, a large log burned through the longest night as a kind of fiery promise that light would return.[7][23]
Feasts and toasts, sometimes with an entire animal roasted, as if to shout at winter, “You may be dark, but we are not done yet.”[4][10]

Over time, as Christianity moved into northern Europe, Yule and Christmas fused. In many modern Scandinavian and Germanic languages, the word for Christmas is still some version of “Jul”. Yule gave much of its vibe – trees, logs, feasts – to what later became Christmas.[2][4][7][8]

Yule is a reminder that long before baby Jesus, people were already throwing “please come back, sun” parties.

3. Saturnalia And The Roman December Chaos

Now we shift to ancient Rome, where December was loud.

Saturnalia: Work? Never heard of her.

Saturnalia was a festival in honor of the god Saturn, originally held on December 17 and later expanded into a multi day event.[1][3]

During Saturnalia:

Normal work stopped.
Social rules loosened. Slaves were allowed unusual freedoms and could jest with or dine with their masters.
People feasted, gambled, sang, and held public banquets.
There were gifts, often small items like candles and figurines.[1][6][9]

Candles were especially popular, symbolizing the light returning after the solstice.[6][9]

If you squint, you can already see some Christmas and New Year family resemblance: days off work, big meals, parties, gifts, and lights.

Sol Invictus: The Unconquered Sun

By the third century, the Roman Empire added another December party. Emperor Aurelian promoted the worship of Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun”, and in 274 CE established a feast of the sun’s birth on December 25.[3][4]

So before Christmas claimed that date, December 25 was already a cosmic birthday: the symbolic comeback party of the sun after the solstice.

To recap the Roman calendar:

Mid to late December: Saturnalia, full of food, candles, and role reversals.[1][6][9]
December 25: Sol Invictus, the sun god’s birthday, celebrating light after darkness.[3][4]

This will matter in a minute.

4. Early Christians: “So… When Was Jesus Born?”

For the first couple of centuries, Christians did not celebrate Christmas at all. Their main big event was Easter. The gospels do not give a date for Jesus’s birth, and early Christians did not rush to invent one.

Eventually, though, they decided the incarnation deserved its own feast. And then came the scheduling question.

Why December 25?

There are two main scholarly ideas about how Jesus’s birthday ended up on December 25:

The “solar remix” idea
This view says Christians chose December 25 to align with or compete against pagan solstice festivals like Sol Invictus and Saturnalia, rebranding an existing season of light and feasting with a new theological meaning.[3][4][8]
The “sacred math” idea
Another line of early Christian thinking argued that important prophets died on the same calendar date they were conceived. If Jesus’s crucifixion was dated to March 25, then his conception (the Annunciation) was also set there, making his birth land nine months later on December 25.[4]

Most historians think reality is a mix. The date made sense theologically to Christians and also sat right next to popular Roman celebrations of the sun, light, and new beginnings.

Either way, the sequence is clear:

Winter solstice parties existed first.
December sun festivals existed first.
Christmas was layered on top.

5. How Christmas Turned Into A Holiday Mega-Mix

Once Christmas set up shop on December 25, it behaved like any human holiday that travels through time: it stole, borrowed, blended, and evolved.

Evergreens and trees

People were decorating with evergreens during winter solstice festivals long before Christmas.[5][6] Pagans and Romans alike brought branches inside as symbols of life that would return in spring.[6][9]

The Christmas tree as we know it appears later. Sources point to 16th century German Christians who brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built wooden pyramids and decorated them with evergreens and candles if trees were scarce.[5][6][24]

The tree is basically a cultural Venn diagram:

Pre Christian evergreen symbolism.
Christian household devotion and imagery.
Later Victorian fashion and modern media spreading it globally.[24]

The Yule log moves in

The custom of a special log burned at Christmas is recorded in European sources from the medieval period, and the term “Yule log” appears in English in the 17th century.[7][23] It is widely understood to be related to earlier Nordic Yule practices: a large log burned through the winter night as a symbolic sun stand in and a blessing for the home.[7][23]

Later still, the log becomes dessert in the form of the bûche de Noël. Humans will turn anything into cake if you give us long enough.

Saint Nicholas becomes Santa

Enter Nicholas of Myra, a 4th century Christian bishop known for secret acts of generosity, like providing dowries for poor girls by tossing bags of gold through their windows.[20][24][25]

Over time:

December 6, his feast day, becomes a gift giving tradition in parts of Europe.
He blends with local folklore figures like Sinterklaas and Father Christmas.
In North America and beyond, poems, illustrations, and advertising remodel him into the red-suited Santa Claus.

Santa is therefore part bishop, part folklore, part marketing, and part “we needed a face for the gift pile”.

Christmas today is complex:

A Christian feast about the incarnation.
A descendant of older solstice feasts.
A family ritual built from trees, lights, and gifts.
A commercial season powered by nostalgia and sales.

It is many things, and none of them in isolation.

6. Other Winter Lights: Hanukkah, Yalda, Dongzhi, Diwali, Kwanzaa

The winter calendar is crowded. Not everyone is at the same party, but a lot of people are holding candles nearby.

Hanukkah: Rededication and resistance

In the 2nd century BCE, Jewish rebels known as the Maccabees fought against Seleucid rule, reclaimed Jerusalem, and rededicated the Second Temple.[8][9][14]

Hanukkah:

Begins on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar, usually in November or December.[9][15]
Lasts eight days.
Commemorates rededication of the Temple and, in later tradition, the miracle of a small amount of oil lasting eight days.[8][9][15]
Is called the “Festival of Lights” and centers on the lighting of the menorah.

Hanukkah did not copy Christmas. It is older than Christmas and rooted in its own political and religious struggle. It just happens to live nearby on the calendar and share a fondness for lights, food, and family.

Yalda Night: Poetry through the longest night

In Iran and neighboring regions, Yalda Night (Shab e Yalda) is a winter solstice celebration with roots at least as far back as the Achaemenid era.[11][13]

On Yalda:

Families and friends gather for the longest night of the year.
They stay up late reading poetry, especially Hafez, telling stories, and sharing food.
Red fruits like pomegranates and watermelons symbolize the crimson colors of dawn and the vitality of life.[11][12][13]

The very word “Yalda” comes from a Syriac term meaning “birth”, which early Eastern Christians also used for Christmas. Over centuries, the language of “birth” and the symbolism of reborn light have overlapped here in fascinating ways.[11][12]

Dongzhi: The solstice of balance and reunion

In China and parts of East Asia, the Dongzhi Festival marks the winter solstice as the point where yin (darkness, cold) peaks and yang (light, warmth) begins to grow again.[14][17]

Common Dongzhi customs include:

Family gatherings and ancestor honoring.
Eating warming foods.
Sharing tangyuan – small glutinous rice balls in sweet soup – which symbolize reunion and completeness and even sound like the word for “reunion” in Chinese.[15][16][18]

Again, the pattern: darkest time, shared food, symbolic shapes, hope.

Diwali: A cousin festival of lights

Diwali is technically earlier in the year – usually between mid October and mid November – but thematically it belongs to this same family of light vs darkness celebrations.[18][19][21]

Across Hinduism and related traditions:

Lamps (diyas), fireworks, and candles fill homes and streets.
Myths vary by region, but they all share the theme of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance.[18][19][21][22]
Families feast, exchange sweets and gifts, and often treat the festival as a new year.

It is not a solstice festival, but it is another bright sibling in the global light family.

Kwanzaa: A modern harvest of identity

Kwanzaa is the newest of the major winter holidays in this list. Created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, it is a week long African American and Pan African celebration of heritage, culture, and community, held from December 26 to January 1.[17][19][20]

Kwanzaa is built around the Nguzo Saba, seven principles:

Umoja (Unity)
Kujichagulia (Self Determination)
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
Nia (Purpose)
Kuumba (Creativity)
Imani (Faith)[17][18]

It draws inspiration from African harvest festivals, but it is deliberately modern, born out of the Black freedom movement and the need for affirming, community centered rituals in a society built on enslavement and racism.[19][22]

Kwanzaa sits in the same season as Christmas and New Year, but carries its own explicit focus on liberation, identity, and shared responsibility.

7. So… Is Jesus Really “The Reason For The Season”?

You have probably seen this phrase on billboards, bumper stickers, and social media debates. Let us untangle it.

If by “the season” we mean:

The deep human impulse to mark the winter turning point with lights, feasts, and hopeful stories,

…then historically, no. That season is older than Christianity and appears across many cultures.

Germanic Yule, Norse midwinter rituals, and related practices go back centuries before Christianization in the region.[2][4][7]
Roman Saturnalia and the feast of Sol Invictus were already happening in December.[1][3][6][9]
Jewish observance of Hanukkah dates to the 2nd century BCE.[8][9][14][15]
Yalda and Dongzhi solstice festivals also predate or develop independently of Christmas.[11][13][14][17]

If by “the season” we mean:

The specifically Christian feast of Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus,

…then for Christians, yes, Jesus is the theological center of that holiday. Their reason for feasting, lighting candles, and gathering on that date is tied to the incarnation.

But culturally, even Christmas is a remix:

Its date overlaps with earlier sun related festivals and early Christian symbolic calculations.[3][4]
Its symbols – trees, logs, greenery, candles, feasting, gifts – have roots in older pagan and folk customs.[2][5][6][7][9]
Its gift bringer, Santa, descends from Saint Nicholas plus centuries of evolving folklore and commerce, not from the New Testament.[20][23][24][25]

So when someone says, “Jesus is the reason for the season,” what they are really saying is:

“In my religious tradition, I choose to center this time on Jesus.”

That is a statement of faith, not a historical fact about the origin of winter celebrations. History shows a big shared stage with many stories performing together.

From a Church of Tinkerbell perspective, that is good news. It means:

No single tradition owns the calendar.
We are free to honor multiple stories honestly.
We can build new rituals that respect real history instead of pretending it is simpler than it is.

Which brings us to…

8. From History To Practice: A Universal Winter Lights Ceremony

As fun as it is to point at history and say, “see, it is complicated,” The Church of Tinkerbell exists to do more than just shout “plot twist!” at theology.

So here is a way to practice what we just learned: a simple, adaptable ritual you can do at home, with friends, in community, or as a solo gremlin on your couch.

This ceremony does not claim that all holidays are secretly the same. Instead, it says:

“Many different peoples lit many different lights.
Tonight we honor them without erasing the differences.”

Use it as written, tweak it, or cannibalize the parts you like.

9. A Universal Winter Lights Ceremony

(For any belief or non belief, hosted gently by Tinkerbell)

A. Set The Scene

You will need:

7 candles or small lights.
A table or central space.
Optional symbols:
- A small evergreen branch or plant (for Yule and general winter green).
- A plain candle or lamp for the sun / solstice.
- A red fruit like a pomegranate or piece of watermelon (for Yalda).[11][13]
- A bowl of round food like dumplings, tangyuan style sweets, or any small round snack (for Dongzhi).[14][15][16]
- A plate of bread, cookies, or sweets (for Saturnalia, Christmas, Hanukkah treats, Diwali sweets, etc.).[1][6][9][18][21]
- A small card listing values like unity, justice, creativity, liberation (for Kwanzaa inspired themes).[17][18][19]

Dim the room lights. Keep just one small light on to start.

If you want to be extra Tinkerbell about it, you can scatter a few paper stars, fairy lights, or glittery decorations around the table.

B. Opening Words

Everyone gathers around.

You (or a designated host) say, at your own pace:

“We gather tonight in the deep of the year.
The days are short, the nights are long.

Across the world and across time, humans have met this season with candles and bonfires, feasts and songs, revolts and prayers.
Some told stories of sun gods or saviors.
Some remembered revolutions and rededications.
Some marked the turning of yin and yang, or the harvest of identity and justice.

Tonight we do not pretend these are all the same story.
We simply honor their lights side by side and kindle our own.”

Pause. Take a breath. Let the room settle.

C. The Seven Lights

You will light 7 candles, each recognizing one “stream” of winter light. One person can do them all, or different people can each take one.

Feel free to improvise, shorten, or adjust language.

Light 1 – The Returning Sun (Yule, Saturnalia, Solstice)

Stand near the evergreen or the main “sun” candle.

“This first light honors all the solstice watchers who wondered if the sun would return.
The people of Yule who burned great logs and filled their halls with evergreens.
The Romans who feasted at Saturnalia and marked the birthday of the Unconquered Sun on December 25.[1][2][3][4]
All those who faced the longest night and answered it with fire and feasting.”

Light the first candle.

Light 2 – Rededication And Resistance (Hanukkah)

Stand by a simple lamp or one of the candles.

“This second light honors the Maccabees, who reclaimed and rededicated their temple, and the Jewish communities who remember that struggle every year at Hanukkah.[8][9][14][15]
It honors everyone who keeps their identity and dignity alive under empire, oppression, or erasure, and everyone who rededicates their sacred spaces – and selves – after violation.”

Light the second candle.

Light 3 – Poetry At The Edge Of Dawn (Yalda)

Touch the red fruit.

“This third light honors Yalda Night, when people across Iran and beyond stay awake through the longest night, sharing poetry, tea, fruit, and laughter.[11][12][13]
It honors the readers, the storytellers, and the ones who whisper,
‘Stay awake with me. Let us wait for the first color of dawn together.'”

Light the third candle.

Light 4 – Balance And Reunion (Dongzhi)

Hold or point to the round food.

“This fourth light honors the Dongzhi Festival – the turning of yin to yang, dark to light.[14][17]
Families who gather to eat warm dumplings or sweet round tangyuan that stand for reunion and wholeness.[15][16][18]
It honors the families we are born into and the families we choose, and the hope that broken circles can heal.”

Light the fourth candle.

Light 5 – Liberation And Community (Kwanzaa)

Point to the card with values.

“This fifth light honors Kwanzaa, created in 1966 to celebrate African heritage, culture, and community among African Americans and the African diaspora.[17][19][20]
It honors the Nguzo Saba – unity, self determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith in each other.[18]
It honors all who are still struggling for liberation, dignity, and repair.”

Light the fifth candle.

Light 6 – Generosity And Caring For The Vulnerable (Christmas, Saint Nicholas)

Point to the plate of bread or sweets.

“This sixth light honors all who center this season on the birth of a vulnerable child in a manger, and on the idea of divine love arriving in human poverty.
It honors the memory of Saint Nicholas and the many legends of secret generosity that grew around him,[20][23][24][25]
And it honors everyone who quietly helps others, gives without recognition, and shares what they can.”

Light the sixth candle.

Light 7 – Inner Light And Wisdom (Diwali & Beyond)

Look at all the candles together.

“This seventh light honors Diwali and every festival that speaks of the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil.[18][19][21][22]
It honors the inner flame of curiosity and conscience that helps us see clearly.
Whatever we believe about gods or spirits or fairies, may we protect that light in one another.”

Light the seventh candle.

Take a moment to simply look at all seven.

D. Shared Silence And Words

Invite 1 to 3 minutes of quiet.

You can say:

“Let us be silent for a moment.
Think of something that has been heavy in this past year.
And something small that has helped you keep going.”

After the silence, invite (optional) sharing:

People can speak a word they are releasing from the past year.
And a word they are inviting in the coming year.

If writing is more comfortable, pass around small slips of paper and a pen so people can write their two words and place the folded paper near the candles.

E. Feasting And Laughter

Now, switch gears from solemn to soft and warm.

You might say:

“Throughout history, people did not just light candles.
They also cooked, snacked, argued, laughed, and fell asleep in chairs at weird angles.

Let us honor Yule feasts, Saturnalia banquets, Hanukkah latkes, Yalda fruits and nuts, Dongzhi dumplings, Diwali sweets, Kwanzaa Karamu meals, and every home cooked winter dish that ever soothed a tired soul.

Please, eat.”

Then you eat. And talk. And tell stories. This is just as holy as anything you said earlier.

F. Closing Blessing

When things are winding down and only a few candles are still burning, gather again.