Solstice celebration — we did it!

I’m so excited that I managed to pull together a solstice celebration this year. At noon on the day of, I talked to my friend and let her know another mom from our Holistic Moms chapter was maybe going to make it. Usually I can’t stand last-minute things, but this time is was great to know it would only be what I could pull together in a short time with a baby on my back.

Solstice craft materials

For the craft, I cut out sort of “horizons” from dark blue and black — enough for each child and mom — and I put out tissue squares of a few shades of blue, yellow, and white along with some foil, cotton balls, and snippets from our Christmas tree.

My finished product - solstice horizon

For the cookies, I used my GFCF (low) sugar cookie recipe, but I ground up a bunch of sunflower seeds to use in place of some of the flower for a nuttier flavor and more protein.  I also liked the symbolism of “sunflower” on the day when the sun spends the least time shining on us. But I forgot to bring that to the kids’ attention. We were making stars, trees and moons until my son went and got out a bunch of other cookie cutters, so we had some leaves, butterflies, and little men, too.

For our candle celebration, we took my son’s Waldorf school lantern outside along with a big star candle from which we lit our little candles and sang a song about “deep into the heart of winter” that I found at Emerald Earth Publishing after I gave a little saying about community and on this darkest day, bringing this light into our hearts to keep us warm through the winter, as the days lengthened toward spring.

Our candle solstice circle outside at dusk

My son had a mini-meltdown when we walked to the front of the house and he understood that we were not going to walk through the neighborhood with the lanterns. I promised him his dad would, and they went right before dinner while I put the baby down for a nap, which worked out great.

But before that, the friends came back in to enjoy by candlelight the cookies that we had made in the daylight.

Enjoying sunflower solstice cookies after dark

My goal was to honor this natural event with beauty and community, and I’m so glad we did.

But even more importantly, I learned I can pull off hosting something and doing something with good and clear intentions but not a lot of planning.