Yule Logs

Yesterday, I attended a workshop led by Jerri Davis at the Sawtooth Botanical Garden and created 2 Yule logs.

The Yule log tradition has roots within the festivities of the winter solstice. This old European tradition of decorating a log to be lit in the hearth to bring good fortune in the year ahead dates back centuries.

The decorative and fragrant Yule log is a combination of pieces of dried fire wood or drift wood, sprigs of green from spruce, pine and/or juniper, pine cones, dried flowers, spices and fruits, moss or lichen covered alder or aspen and anything else you can find in your garden, pantry, the neighborhood or on a nature walk, that will add color, texture, scents and interest to the log. The pieces are held together with non toxic craft glue, love and gratitude.

The two unique Yule logs I made will soon be honored by our friends and relatives for a traditional ceremony as they sparkle in the fireplace. (Yes we will burn them even if they look too nice to be burnt!)

Thanks to Jerri Davis for her inspiration. Now a landscape designer, Jerri has been using her Yule log ceremony for the last 20 years, reading her poem to family and friends at the holiday gathering just before the Yule log is set on fire: 

The Yule Log Ceremony was practiced in the Colonies as it had been for the previous centuries in the world. Each member of the family and guests would touch the giant log with a sprig of green which symbolized the past year's woes and then toss it on the fire with the Yule Log. All past troubles would thus be banished, and the house would be protected for the coming year from ghosties and gasties and things that go boomp in the night.