Welcome to the first installment of my four-part holiday series, “Making Spirits Bright.”
Can you feel the holiday magic?
I’ve been playing a lot of Christmas music these days and baking cookies and eating cookies, and Nick and I are enjoying a very peaceful holiday season so far.
Even at my age, I still get a kick out of our annual excursion of Light seeing — you know, driving up and down the streets oohing and ahhing at our neighbors’ Christmas lights. I have to admit that I prefer the colored lights, but the white lights are pretty, too.
Was it really over 60 years ago when I would beg to sleep under the tree to wait for Santa?
Even though my adult self has allowed only real trees to grace my living room, I remember a time long ago when I would sit in my pajamas with the feet in them and just watch, transfixed at an “outer space” aluminum Christmas tree and the motorized color wheel that turned the tree from amber to green, to red, to blue.
Hang onto your Christmas stockings because I’m about to reveal something that I’ve never shared before: I saw Santa Claus.
I’m not talking about spying him at the mall, a street corner or in a Christmas movie. Of course, I saw him there. You have, too.
But have you ever heard jingle bells on Christmas Eve, followed by a “Ho! Ho! Ho!” and then looked up at the night sky, just in time to see a sleigh flying among the moon and stars?
I did.
It happened when I was about eight-years-old and living in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Unfortunately, there were no witnesses so I have no one to corroborate my story. But I know what I saw and I’m convinced it was a sign that Santa really did exist.
Do you remember when you were a child and how excited you would get when you would write that annual letter to Santa? And how you couldn’t wait to visit him at the local store, just to tell him exactly what you wanted for Christmas? That child was filled with happy expectations and wonder — two qualities which we tend to lose as adults.
Today I am going to help you embrace your Inner Child by making seasonal crafts, writing a story, and listening to two magical meditations.
So how do we find our comfort and joy this holiday season?
First of all, we believe that this will be the best holiday season ever. And then we embrace our inner child.
For example, instead of thinking I’m so tired, I can’t wait for all this commercialism and shopping and crowded stores to end, think instead:
I love all the lights and the music and I can’t wait until the big day is finally here so we can open up all the presents!
As adults, we tend to be unyielding in our traditions, which may cause tremendous stress if things do not go exactly as planned. So why not avoid the stress, be flexible and just go with the flow?
Here’s a fun and simple craft. To make this tree ornament, just tie ribbon strips to a stick and top with a glued star anise and string!
A different style of tree, this time with green yarn, twine, gold metallic thread, and wooden stars.
Do you like altars? One year I made a Yule Jar with sliced dried oranges, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, anise stars, and sprigs of evergreen and rosemary. To count down to Yule, I made a Salt Dough Spiral with Salt Dough Stars. (I painted the stars with metallic gold paint.)
Here’s a miniature Yule altar, made from an Altoids tin. For the top, I hotglued part of a bookmark I received from the American Lung Association. Inside, I glued white felt on both sides, then added a small green taffeta bag, round mirror, tiny tree, tiny star, bay leaf, red candle, candlestick holder (that I made from clay and a tiny star cookie cutter), and a vial of my Yule oil.
Speaking of Yule oil, don’t underestimate the power of fragrance to make your spirits bright. For a seasonal spray, add 8 drops pine essential oil, 6 drops frankincense essential oil, 8 drops sweet orange essential oil, 4 drops cypress essential oil, 4 drops juniper essential oil, and 2 drops clove essential oil to a spray bottle of spring or filtered water.
A winter meditation
The first time you hold a Labradorite in your hand, you may not be aware of its powerful magic.
At first glance, it’s a dull, grayish, dark-colored stone. But when you move it a bit, you see flashes of blue, green, purple, and gold shimmer like the Aurora Borealis.
Labradorite was reportedly discovered in Labrador, Canada by missionaries in 1770, although there are accounts that the Inuit tribe was using the stone long before that documented discovery.
Known as a stone of transformation, Labradorite is a powerful portal of Light, used to heighten your intuition and shield you from negativity.
For a higher vibrational experience, you may wish to hold a real Labradorite crystal while listening to the recording.
WRITING PROMPT: What is the magic of winter?
WRITING PROMPT: How is Labradorite assisting me with my manifesting?
WRITING PROMPT: How can I shine more Light into the darkness?
An enchanted story
Take a look at the cards below from The Forest of Enchantment tarot deck. Do you see a theme? Do they inspire you to write a story?
Think about the colors, the details, the expressions on their faces. Choose one or all three cards and write the plot of a yuletide fairytale!
’Tis the season to be jolly?
Year after year, many of us dread the holidays because we see it all as one humongous headache. Writing Christmas cards, shipping packages, decorating your home, visiting friends and relatives, shopping till you drop.
And let’s not forget about buying the right gifts, cooking the right foods, and the hardship of finding the dollars to pay for all those fine foods and gifts.
Sometimes we feel that Ebeneezer Scrooge had the right idea before he was visited by the ghosts of Christmas, past, present, and future.
Don’t let yourself get sucked into the victim role.
You are not responsible for everyone’s happiness, but you are responsible for your own. In his book, Happy Holidays, Dr. Wayne Dyer says we should enjoy the holiday season to the fullest by giving ourselves permission to celebrate any way that we choose.
This means breaking free of tradition if we have to — and not worrying about it.
WRITING PROMPT: Write a letter to Santa as an adult. What is it you wish for now?
WRITING PROMPT: How would you make the holidays more magical?
WRITING PROMPT: What is it about the holidays that make you stressed or melancholy?
Raise your vibrations
When we adopt a merrier, more positive attitude, everything around us seems more calm and bright.
Here are some simple tips to raise your vibrations of Light during this holiday season:
Purify your body. That means limiting the junk food and drinking lots of water.
Exercise and meditate daily.
Sleep for at least eight hours a day.
Declutter your home and your office.
Associate with positive people.
Donate to charities.
Show compassion for others.
Add bright colors to your home and wardrobe.
Psychic Sonia Choquette once wrote that we should enter this season with the intention of being a personal messenger of Light and Love. For every person creating joy, she says, there is one less person in pain.
This year, don’t let your mindset be how do I survive the holiday? Let it be how do I enjoy the holidays? Don’t think of the holidays as one big battlefield of emotion and physical exhaustion. Make love, not war!
Imagine you are walking down a path through the snow-covered mountains at night.
Snow is falling gently and you can see your breath form into small, wispy white clouds.
The full moon illuminates your way as you stroll through a pretty Alpine village, past wooden mountain chalets and tall pine trees filled with pine cones.
You hear jingle bells and singing and you find yourself entering a brightly lit Christmas market. As your eyes adjust to a color symphony of red, white, green, blue, silver, and gold, you can’t help notice joy and merriment everywhere you look.
There are brilliant white lights hanging across two rows of vendor stalls and as you pass each festive display, you see fresh-cut wreaths with velvety red bows, painted nutcrackers, gold foil angels, handknit scarves, and bright fleece jackets. There are also sweet-smelling gingerbread cottages with hard white icing and in the distance you hear a chorus of bell ringers playing “Away in the Manger.”
You make your way to one stall which displays shiny, old-fashioned wooden music boxes and you lift the lid of one of the larger ones. A tinkly tune plays “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and you quickly close the lid. A tear rolls down your cheek.
A little cherub-faced girl has been watching you and smiles. She walks up to you and tugs at your coat sleeve to hand you a small, foil-wrapped box. You accept the box and she mysteriously disappears.
You make your way through the small crowd of rosy-cheeked merrymakers until you have reached the other side of the market, where you spy a festive, white gazebo, covered in fluffy, white snow and green garlands with red bows. You step inside the gazebo, sit down on a bench and unwrap your gift.
It is a small glass snowglobe. As you remove the snowglobe from the bright red tissue paper, you notice something very peculiar. There are no figurines inside. There is no snow. There is no water.
You shake the snowglobe. Suddenly, glittery, white sparkles of snowflakes appear. You watch the flakes billow into one snow-like cloud until they sink to the bottom of the glass. Suddenly, you feel yourself growing smaller and smaller until you are standing inside the snowglobe.
A color wheel of red, blue, and green magically appears in the corner and it turns until it stops at the color red. Like a spotlight, a soft red light shines upon you and a scene magically appears all around you, showing you a holiday time when you were not happy, a time when you were seething with jealousy. This was not a good time for you as you felt cheated because someone else had what you wanted and you—or your family—could not afford it.
The color wheel turns until there is a soft blue light shining on you and the scene is now a time when the holiday season made you feel very sad. You see yourself sitting all alone in a darkened room with no Christmas tree, no ornaments, and no presents. You are crying and there is a box of tissues beside you. The television is on and It’s A Wonderful Life is playing for the umpteenth time. George Bailey has returned to his real life and is running through the streets of Bedford Falls, so happy to be alive and full of hope and gratitude. But all you can see is one big watery blur.
Suddenly, you are outside of the snowglobe, back to the present, and sitting on the bench in the gazebo. The little cherub-faced girl is standing beside you. She tells you that (like George Bailey) your life can change for the better when you change your perception. She tells you that whenever you feel envious or sad, just shake the snowglobe of your mind and the pure white snow will cleanse away any negativity.
You shake the snowglobe again and watch closely until the snow clears and you see that the color wheel has turned to green. You see yourself in a wonderful, pleasant scene where you are laughing and smiling and sharing. The color green makes you feel healthy, balanced, and renewed.
In the distance, you hear carolers singing “All is calm, all is bright” and you silently thank the little angel for her precious gift.
You are at Peace.
Blessings,
Eleyne-Mari
Eleyne-Mari, I love the DIY crafts you offered in this post, especially the little yarn trees. Thank you so much for such a comprehensive glimpse into ways we can enter this holiday season with a centered sense of self.