Explore Yule, Christmas, midwinter traditions, and the winter solstice

Explore Yule, Christmas traditions and the winter solstice with this printable 110-page family activity pack of folklore, crafts, nature, stories, art, food and reflection. Our biggest Wheel of the Year pack so far.

Yule sits at the heart of midwinter, when the nights are longest and the days begin their slow return towards the light. This pack explores the season through folklore, old customs, nature, art, poetry, food, stories, reflection and hands-on activities. Inside, you’ll find a mixture of historical traditions, folklore, modern ideas and winter customs from different places. Some pages look back at older midwinter celebrations, while others invite you outside to notice frost, evergreen plants, winter birds, low sunlight and the quieter landscape around you.

The pack is designed to be flexible, creative and family-friendly. There is no set order and no need to complete everything. Choose the pages that fit your family, your interests and the time you have. You might spend an afternoon making something, read a winter story before bed, take a solstice walk, or return to different parts of the pack over several years. Print only the pages you want to use.

What’s inside

• Yule and the winter solstice: Explore what Yule means today, its links with older northern European midwinter traditions, the winter solstice, and the turning of the year.
• Winter traditions around the world: Discover midwinter customs including Saturnalia, Dongzhi, Soyal, Tōji, Shab-e Yalda and the winter solstice at Newgrange.
• Folklore and winter figures: Meet the Holly King and Oak King, the Yule Goat, La Befana, the Yule Cat, Grýla and the Yule Lads, Odin and the Wild Hunt, Father Christmas and other figures connected with winter stories and traditions.
• Seasonal plants, symbols and customs: Explore evergreens, holly, ivy, mistletoe, the Yule log, wassailing, Yule colours and symbols, candles, firelight and the meaning people have found in midwinter traditions.
• Nature and seasonal noticing: Take a Yule nature walk, look for winter colours, evergreens, frost, birds and bare trees, and notice how the landscape changes around the solstice.
• Art, poetry and storytelling: Explore seasonal artworks and poems, including winter paintings and poetry studies, alongside creative writing prompts and an original winter tale.
• Crafts and printable activities: Make decorations, seasonal displays, a children’s mini Yule display, a Yule turning wheel, a rune treat bag, nature crafts and other simple winter projects.
• Food and gathering: Explore winter foods and flavours, warming drinks, baking and recipes that can become part of your family’s own seasonal traditions.
• Reflection and family traditions: Use blessings pages, reflective prompts and journalling ideas to look back over the year, notice what has carried you through, and think about what you would like to nurture as the light begins to return.

Made for mixed ages

The pack is designed for families to use together. Younger children may enjoy the colouring pages, stories, simple crafts, nature activities and hands-on printables. Older children and teens can explore the folklore, art, poetry, history and reflective activities more deeply. Many pages can be adapted easily. A younger child might draw rather than write, while an older child might research a tradition, compare different versions of a story, or follow an idea further.

Use it in your own way

You do not need to follow the Wheel of the Year to use this pack. It is also for families who are simply curious about Yule, the winter solstice, winter folklore, older seasonal customs or finding thoughtful ways to mark midwinter. You might create a Yule display, light a candle on the longest night, bake something warm, read a winter story, watch the sunrise, make a decoration, or simply step outside and notice where the year has reached. Some families may use a handful of pages. Others may return to it throughout December and into January. There is no right way to use it.

A note about Father Christmas

The pack includes pages exploring the history and folklore that helped shape modern Father Christmas and Santa traditions. If you have young children who prefer the story left unexplored, you may want to skip those pages for now.

This pack is not tied to one belief or religion. It includes historical customs, folklore, modern Pagan traditions and winter celebrations from many different cultures, with space for families to choose what feels relevant to them.

Most of all, it is an invitation to notice midwinter. To gather, make, read, cook, wander outside, tell stories, and watch the year begin its slow turn back towards the light.

Pair this with the The Winter Full Moons Pack for a combined 202 pages of winter themed learning.

Already bought the 2025 Yule Pack? You do not need to buy it again. This new 110-page edition is included as a free update. Simply download the latest version from your Payhip purchases page or through your original Yule 2025 purchase email. If you enjoy the new edition and would like to make a small donation towards the time spent researching, rewriting, illustrating and rebuilding it, you can do so by adding a pay-what-you-want amount to one of the free resources in the shop. It is entirely optional, but much appreciated.

For best printing results, open the PDF using 'Adobe Acrobat' - the reader app is free to download for all platforms. Select paper size 'A4' and a 'fit to page or printable area' option to avoid cropping when printing. Only print the pages you need to, to save ink.

📎Format: Two PDFs. This is a digital download. No physical item will be posted.

🖨️ Printing, usage & group licence

All content in this pack is © Sasha Jackson / Dartmoor Kin.



This is a personal and limited group-use resource. You are welcome to print it for your own family, class, group, or session, but the digital file must not be shared, uploaded, copied, resold, or redistributed. Full usage guidance is included inside the pack.