review
by Amanda Silvers
I'm constantly looking for new ways to include my childhood traditions and old customs in the way I practice the Craft. I was looking in Yule: A Celebration of Light and Warmth for a few more ways to personalize Yule, to bring it back to its original pagan roots for me.
Unfortunately, I found myself somewhat disappointed. Morrison's Yule is a good book in many ways. Its strengths are its homey, hearthy, warm touches, as the title promises: Yule gift ideas, decorations, games, recipes, crafts and Yule personal magick.
What disappointed me was the section on history, traditions and symbols of Yule, which unfortunately leads off the book and might turn some readers off the other perfectly good contents. I found some of this initial historical and traditional data slim and glossed-over. Morrison annoys me when she surmises that she knows what the pagans of old were thinking and why they did things, without supporting her theories with facts. I also found the treatment of some supposed facts in her history of Yule misleading and, in some cases, incorrect - with some of the essentials missing altogether! At some points, Morrison runs together myths and traditions from several cultures. Where she cites her sources, the information is mostly right on, but there are serious problems in other spots. Instead of making clear what she doesn't know, she attempts to support her theories with questionable history, guesses mostly, from what I can tell.
In the following chapters on Yule traditions and symbols, festivals of light around the world and holiday customs, some information proves redundant, as the customs, festivals and traditions are all very similar. More interesting reading is the fun chapter "Omens, Superstitions, and Other Magickal Goodies." I found a lot of Yule superstitions I haven't heard of - although lots of ones I thought were common were missing! A chapter on Yuletide trivia rounds out the first part; it reads like filler.
Part Two gets to the better, more magickal stuff right away, with a Yule cleaning spell and a charm for general success and alleviating blockages for the new year. After that come some clever and some cheesy decorating ideas and some do-it-yourself, fun crafts, mostly easy, including ideas on making wreaths, garlands, candleholders and centerpieces.
The chapter on the Yule tree proceeds as if all of us pagans will decorate an inside Christmas-type tree, a Christian-oriented assumption, in my opinion. I know, though, that it's a hard tradition to let go of, especially for those with small children. In our coven, we decorate a Yule log, and this book does give several versions of that ritual, leaving out a few more obvious ones. Making your own holiday cards is touched on; I would have liked more ideas here. But there are a few to get you started, and Morrison does say in the beginning that the book is meant to be an inspiration for your own creativity rather than an encyclopedia.
Part Three gets better. The section on quick and easy Yule gifts is fun, with some cute and clever ideas. She suggests gift wrap ideas, party decorations and games and then lots of recipes, both some traditional Euro-American Yule fare and some from around the world. I am usually not fond of recipes in books, unless they're cookbooks or specifically about food, but the food ideas work in context here.
Part Four is about creating personal traditions. Since I thought that this was what the book was all about, it seems too bad to leave it till the very end! The daily event calendar here gives useful ideas about how to celebrate the holiday season fully, and how to do it in a magickal and uplifting way.
All in all, the book holds quite a lot of useful, interesting, practical information. It has the requisite recipes and crafts - I haven't tried all the recipes so can't speak for them all! But at 191 pages, this book could have been smaller and less expensive. I doubt I'd pay $14.95 for it. I'd most likely wait to purchase it till it was old enough to be found in my favorite used bookstore.
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