Hello everyone, I hope you all are doing well and taking care of yourself. Happy Yule! Yule marks the winter solstice, the return of the light after the longest night of the year, a celebration of re-birth and new beginnings. Yule, Saturnalia, and Christmas are just three of the traditional holidays celebrated around the Winter Solstice. Yule taps into the never-ending cycle of life and death and hope for sunshine. It is after all the rebirth of the sun and warmer days to come.
I never knew this but the story of the Grinch, set in Whoville, was based on Ted Geisel’s (Dr. Seuss’) hometown of Easthampton, Massachusetts. The mountain that the Grinch calls home, Mount Crumpit, was actually based on Mount Tom. The cartoon version of the Grinch was the most expensive animated program made by CBS at the time. “Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas…perhaps…means a little bit more!” – Dr. Seuss, How The Grinch Stole Christmas!
Anyway I know you didn’t come here for a history lesson, so let’s into how to celebrate yule. Starting off with the yule log. The Yule Log we know and love today was not always a delicious frosted cake or beautifully decorated centerpiece. It was actually an entire tree (preferably oak, birch, or cherry) that was cut…A Yule Log (also called chocolate roulade or bûche de Noël) is a chocolatey dessert made from a rolled-up sponge filled with cream and frosted with chocolate buttercream decorated to replicate tree bark.
Once the family had chosen the right tree it would be dragged back to the home to be burned over a twelve-day period to honor the twelve days of Christmas. From burning the logs to celebrate the holiday, to creating a Christmas ornament, to eating this chocolatey treat, this is one festive tradition we hope is going nowhere.
