 Hello people! I'm Ginny Metherall and I am a fourth-generation witch. Today at last I'm back with my ever-popular Almanac series looking at what witchcraft you can do and when throughout the month of December. So as always with these videos what I like to do is to give you a general overview of the witchcraft trends that are happening throughout the month of December and then we look at the nitty-gritty day-to-day detail at what witchcraft and when. So with that said let's get on to the overview. December is the month of mid-winter. Yanglo Saxons called the month of December Yule Monath the month of Yule because of course it is. This is the oldest festival known to humanity, this and the Summer Solstice and we have been celebrating them for as long as we have been man. This is a fire festival and this is reflected actually throughout the month of December there are so many different applications for the use of fire and if you don't do anything with your witchcraft just light a candle every single day as this celebrates bringing the light into the darkest months of winter. I don't really know why our ancient ancestors celebrated the month of mid-winter with this great three or twelve day feast depending on your custom. I mean there is a sense to be said that it is the time when you should eat meat because the stock have been killed and salted and it won't last that long so they sort of feasted whilst they could. Your resources are quite scarce at this time you know you've got to eke them out through the lean months of the following spring. December is the time to bring the greenery into the house representing the rebirth of the sun at mid-winter. The earth is in a slumber at the moment bringing greenery in to recreate your house does bring great cheer as we look towards the coming months of spring. The energetic feel of December is quite muted the world is dormant in the sleep and as a result I do enjoy the quietness of the world. You can often go out in the evenings and it's just still and silent. It is quite joyous in a way nice month December. And finally for December one of the great things that run through December is the kindness to children you know we have St Nicholas Father Christmas all bringing presents to our little ones. We also have children mass which I will go into later the Holy Innocence Day and there is a trend at Christmas that you should look towards your younglings. Having said that there is not much of an overview on December because the world is dormant but there is so much to be done on each individual days so let's go straight in to what witchcraft you can do on what day. As with all these videos we are going to start with the first of December which is the start of meteorological the start of the meteorological winter yet I'm not even going to try again because I just not coming out of my mouth is it this just means it's winter the next three months are classified as the coldest of the year and yes they are it is a bit chilly so what do we do in winter we light our fires it was known you know the first of December you are allowed to start heating your home. I've lived in a bloody freezing house but I seem to remember that in December the central heating came on and I was quite pleased so that was always a joy at this time of year. The 6th of December is St Nicholas's day which is the day that the northern Scandinavian countries leave their toys in shoes for their children outside their bedroom doors I'm not too au fait with the actual customs of St Nicholas what I do know is that this is a child centric day we will be looking towards our children on this day which as I said in the beginning is a great trend that runs throughout December and it starts early on in the month on the 6th. St Nicholas often people say is the forebear of Father Christmas well maybe he is maybe he isn't because the pagan ancestors did have their own form of Father Christmas who came midwinter the next date I want to look at is the 12th of December which is of course the night of the new moon. Astrologers believe that each new moon has its own energy depending on the star sign that is in and this new moon is in Sagittarius which is a very optimistic and trustful sign so this is a great time to make plans for your future travels so plan your summer holiday today great time for it and also to release the bonds that are holding you back in your life so take stock of what you think you can do without and get rid of it. The 12th of December for some reason and I can't find out why but this is the time that you should cut your greenery to decorate your houses however there's a couple of rules about this one do not use any iron hence why the druids used to have those gold and silver sickles don't use any iron when cutting your greenery down. Two don't let it touch the floor I'm not sure why maybe because it magically leeches the energy into the earth as opposed to holding it in the branches and number three you're not allowed to bring it actually into your house on that today you just store it near your house or hang it up outside because you can't bring in the greenery as so they say until midwinter or yule because this will bring you bad luck. Mistletoe of course that grows on oak trees is the one that is really considered the sort of greatest of all mistletoe however mistletoe that grows on apple trees and hawthorn trees also has special meaning it is a plant of fertility and an aphrodisiac so the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe means that you must take a berry of one of the white berries from the mistletoe every time you kiss and when all the berries have been used the mistletoe has lost its power. The 12th of December is also St Finnean's night now this is a night where you must go to bed having had a full supper if you don't eat your supper tonight then you are likely to be carried over the threshold by the fairies so kit make sure you eat those greens. 13th of December is the peak of the Geminids meteor showers the Geminids meteor showers are one of the most spectacular throughout the year the moon is quite dark at the moment so there's no glare coming off it to detract from the beauty of them these are multicoloured fireworks they often break off into lots of different filaments as they fly well worth a look and what do you do when you see a shooting star well of course you make a wish so tonight you can make your wishes and do please let me remind you about wish magic that wish magic is inherently selfish do not wish for other people only ever wish for yourself sounds good doesn't it the 13th of December is the day when mercury goes retrograde meaning it looks like it moves backwards along its orbit this is a day when tempers will flare communications break down and if something is going to go wrong it will mercury retrograde makes us all a bit crabby don't sign any contracts don't make any life changing decisions this day or until it's finished its retrograde motion which is on the 1st of January next year so just beware the 16th of December is the beginning of the mince pie season now for our american friends who don't know what mince pies are they are these delicious sweet sultana and nut and currants and all sorts of lovely dried fruit pies thoroughly recommend you go and buy them they're very sweet delicious they're not made with beef or things like that there is a thought that you should eat 12 mince pies in December in order to bring you luck for every month of the year and today the 16th of December is the day that you start that the 20th of December is the day that the ghosts start to walk and they walk from now until just after christmas so should you wish to see the ghost walking go outside and have a look it's also a day that's great for divination as all ghost walking days are because the spirits of the dead can tell you that of the future so if you would like to read your terracans or have a look in your crystal ball do so today the next big date of the year is the 22nd of December and this of course is yule the winter solstice now i'm not going to tell you very much about yule in this video because of course i will do my own dedicated video towards yule next week so look out for that then and if i'm very clever i'll try and remember when i've got it out to push it up here for you that i might forget so if it's not there oh dear yule of course is where we have the joyous thought that we now have lengthening days for six months ahead of us and if lighting up the darkness wasn't so important to us as a human species then we wouldn't have been doing it for so long stonehenge is the big cathedral to the winter solstice it was most likely built for the winter solstice because the sun sets directly between the two main trilithons i think they're called the two main stones we have been doing this for a long time it is the day of course when you would like your yule candle your candles should be red because red is a very energetic and strongly forward motion color that pulls us out of the depths of midwinter the 22nd of december is also the day when the sun moves into capricorn which is my own star sign hello my time of year it makes me laugh i was looking at the oldestrologist thoughts about capricorn men and women and they seem to be rather sexually prolific i have many partners and many children they're also quite irascible and angry i couldn't really find anything very wonderful about them apart from our loyalty and kindness which to be fair is not a bad characteristic to have the 24th of december of course we all know as christmas eve however there's a great tradition amongst the christians at midnight on christmas eve the little animals kneel down in the stable with tears running down their furry faces in praise of the christ child that it's also considered that they have the ability to talk now only for an hour or so and it is an old old tradition this far older than the christian however the talking of the beasts cannot be spied upon by the humans you know if you go out and look for it they're not going to do it and also it's really bad luck you can only catch them by chance so don't go and look for the animals talking this leads me on nicely to the 25th of december which we all know as christmas day now christmas day it's got elves it's got angels it's got flying reindeer it's got mysterious people coming down the chimney it's got um symbolic fires animals talking if this is not a pagan festival takeover then well i'm no witch i have got a video about how christmas is so big and if you'd like to have a look at that i'll put it up here for you christmas day has long been held as a day of divination as well and here are a couple of folklore weather divinations for you a clear night on christmas eve will mean that you will have good crops in the summer snow on christmas day means the Easter will be green and finally the nearer the new moon is to christmas day the harder the winter the 26th of december is known as boxing day now for those of you who don't know what boxing day is it's simply a day when we boxed up presents for the postman and the milkman and you know those who came and delivered to our house on a regular basis that's got nothing to do with what i want to talk about which is also it is the day of the ren now christmas is defined by the robin is it not the beautiful robin red brush but the robin and the ren are both very very closely correlated and tied in together the ren is one of the birds that sings throughout december as is the robin it is also known as the king of the birds it was heavily venerated by the Celtic nations and it was known to be the symbol of the druids there are many stories about how its courage and its intelligence and its wit have overcome many obstacles in helping humanity such as bringing fire to humans in the first place there is a lot of places in the world especially in northern france the isle of man and ireland where they know this day as the hunting of the ren day whereupon boys would go out and with a dead ren on a stick in times past now i'm happy to say it's a you know a puppet of a ren on a stick they would go and bang on the doors of houses around the neighborhood they would ask for a penny in exchange for a feather and the feather was extremely good luck and you definitely wanted and in fact most of the gandon avian countries think of the ren as the winter king it is very much part and parcel of a north european culture they're absolutely charming these animals they tend to be very very territorial in the summer and they go around you know discarding anybody from encroaching on their territory but in winter sweetly they very much pause all hostilities and a ren if it finds a particularly cosy place to hang out will go around calling all the other wrens they're all huddled together in this cozy nook and you know sort of 60 wrens have been found in one of those little bird nesting boxes so utterly charming i think it's one of my favourite birds the ren they're just cheerful they just cheer you up and make you feel happy the 27th of december is the night of the full moon this is known as the moon after yule by the anglo-saxons or the oak moon and cold moon the oak moon of course is because it is the time of the rise of the oak king now the 27th of december is a day when you shouldn't eat chocolate i got the information from this book uh folklore of river it is now manac folklore now i think it's because chocolate is very heating over the blood it was considered by the mexicans and the aztecs to be a fertility and virility drug and of course it is so on the 27th two days after the christian christmas you shouldn't continue to eat chocolate because you've had enough and it might make you over sex the 28th of december is known as the unluckiest day of the year and this is simply because it is the anniversary of the death of the innocence by king herod where he tried to kill all those male children under two in his province in order to prevent the birth of the christ child it's the holy innocence day and it is a day recommended that again you should be kind to your children to be fair they're probably driving you up the wall today because you've had them for whole of christmas and now they're getting stir crazy so i can understand why people might be a bit cross by now with them so remember patience is a virtue and finally we come to the 31st of december there is a heap of fire festivals happening on this day the allendale fire festival the flambeau fire festival in tayside and the one in grampian the swinging the fireballs festival i suspect that these are all sort of solstice festivals that have got moved forward into the new year because we like to celebrate the new year with light previous to our modern day times these would have been carried out throughout the month of december and around the solstice period it is a mark of our culture that we do like to light the darkness with a candle and so therefore let me remind you to light up the 31st of december with a red candle for luck do let me know in the comments below what your favorite tradition is i really enjoy reading them and i'll try and respond to as many as possible otherwise my patreon coven meeting is coming up new applicants are always welcome it's not scary i am the person doing pretty much 100 of the talking mostly mostly so do come i promise you you'll have so much fun and as someone once said i have learnt more from this meeting than i have done in the past 12 years so i do recommend it otherwise don't forget to like and subscribe because it really helps my channel and i hope you have an incredibly happy yule so i will see you in the very near future