The Gift of Winter Solstice Energy

The gifting season is upon us! With that comes the fun of picking out items for your friends and family that they’ll cherish and have meaning to them. Naturally, I love gifting things that resonate with each person, to support them physically or emotionally (or both!), and to remind them that they are loved and cared for.

This is also the time of the Winter Solstice. While there is so much hustle and bustle during the holidays, the Winter Solstice invites you to rediscover being rather than doing. The winter is the time that most of the earth sleeps. It’s like the gathering of potential energy of a seed before it sprouts or a caterpillar cocooned before becoming a butterfly.

I’ve crafted the Winter Solstice Bundle for you to use yourself and also to gift to those in your life who love ritual and honoring these solstice and equinox points in the Medicine Wheel.

During this time, Celtic folklore tells of the Holly King (the Green Man in winter). He’s concerned with practical things. How you support yourself and your family. Providing you with support during your emotional and/or spiritual winter. He’s also the guardian of fire, or winter sun. This is a great time to get quiet and reflect on what you want to cultivate in the year ahead.

There are several ways to approach the Winter Solstice and this year I decided to focus on three areas that will hopefully be the most beneficial for you to fully enjoy the season. To correspond with these area, I’ve carefully selected items for the bundle to harness the energy of the season and help you connect with the potential of the Winter Solstice. The herbs and practices you’ll receive are helpful for this period of dark and cold.

One item in your Winter Solstice Bundle is a Yule ornament. It is a combination of herbs that help to bless your home with warmth and love. The herbs I used in your ornament are cinnamon, birch, rose, lavender, along with small moonstone rose quartz beads.

I love bringing the outdoors into my home during the Winter Solstice and also responsibly using plants as accents on gifts. Symbolically, evergreens remind us that the sun will return. The Celtics also considered the evergreen to be a symbol of life, protection, and future prosperity. Evergreens are the only type of trees that stay green during the dark, "lifeless" winter months.

Did you know: trees have different meanings? Aspen corresponds to spiritual understanding. Oak is for strength and wisdom. Birch is for fertility. Pine connects you to prosperity.

James and I also like to bring mistletoe into our home during this season. You’ve surely heard of kissing under the mistletoe! Mistletoe is known as a “all-heal." It's a talisman for healing, fertility, and magic. One of the reasons why I included it in the Winter Solstice Bundle is because of those magical, healing properties. Since this is the time to turn inward and set intentions for the following seasons, mistletoe is a powerful ally to have in your home to help those intentions manifest themselves.

You can find the Winter Solstice Bundle in my Etsy shop here. While it may not arrive in time for the exact day of the Winter Solstice, the rituals and intentions I’ve shared in the included guide will bring your energy into alignment with this time of year no matter when you use them this season.

Of course, there are also many teas and tisanes in the shop that are great gifts for the people in your life who are focused on wellbeing and supporting themselves with natural ingredients that promote strong mental and physical health. Gift sets and a tea infuser bundled together are perfect gifts for friends and close neighbors. I like to gift a tea sampler to colleagues so they can try something new with a low commitment. The samplers make great stocking stuffers, too!