Reclaiming the Magic of Christmas — Remembering ancient traditions

In recent years Christmas had lost it's appeal for me. As a child, I remember feeling such excitement — awaiting Santa’s gifts in my sock, my parents playing music together, and the beautiful candles dancing on the tree. Decorating the tree was always the most magical part for me.

But over the years, something faded. Christmas began to feel hollow to me, like a repetitive event without any further meaning, embedded in consumerism and consumer mentality. I wasn’t raised Christian, and the religious side of the holiday never really resonated with me.
For a while, I stopped having a tree altogether — it simply didn’t spark anything in me anymore.

The Pagan Roots of Christmas

Learning about the ancient roots of Christmas — or Yule — changed everything for me.
Before Christianity, the peoples of the North celebrated this time as Yule, derived from the Old Norse and Swedish word Jul, meaning “wheel.” It marked the turning of the great cosmic wheel — the return of the sun after the longest night.

The Christmas wreath, which we hang on our doors today, once symbolised this eternal circle of life — death, rebirth, and renewal. It reminds us that even in the darkest night, the promise of new light is already turning.

The evergreen tree, or Yule Tree, was a living symbol of endurance and vitality — representing the World Tree, the axis that connects Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld.
 In ancient times, people decorated these trees as offerings to the gods, invoking blessings for the year to come.

And then, there were the reindeer.
 Long before they became companions of Santa Claus, reindeer were sacred to the Sami and Siberian shamans.
They were seen as guides between worlds, carrying the spirit of the shaman through the long polar nights, bridging Earth and sky — messengers between the realms of the living and the unseen.

Archaeological findings in Britain reveal this reverence goes back over 11,000 years. 
In Star Carr, Yorkshire, a reindeer headdress was discovered — worn by shamans to connect with the wisdom and fertility of the reindeer mother, a symbol of the Earth’s renewal.

The Old Magic Behind Santa Claus

Even Santa Claus, with his red coat and flying sleigh, carries traces of ancient myth.
 In Norse tradition, the god Odin was known as Jólfaðr — the Yule Father — who rode across the winter sky on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, bringing gifts to those who had honoured the light. Over centuries, this story blended with others until Odin’s wild winter flight transformed into Santa’s sleigh ride.



Some say the vision of the flying reindeer was born from the consumption of the Amanita muscaria, the red-and-white mushroom that grew under pine trees and was used in ancient shamanic ceremonies. To the shamans of the far North, Amanita was known as the Underworld Mother — her mycelial threads weaving deep into the earth, connecting the worlds below. The reindeer, often seen eating these mushrooms, became sacred carriers of her spirit medicine, bridging Heaven, Earth, and the Underworld.

Honouring the Birth of Light

There’s another part of the Christmas story that still touches me deeply — the birth of the Jesus.
 Even beyond religious interpretation, it is a story that honours the sacred act of birth, the emergence of new light through the womb of a woman.

Mother Mary becomes a symbol of every mother — of the feminine force that births the divine into form. 
And the story of Jesus’s birth, at its heart, honours all life that comes into being.
 Because in truth, every baby is a sparkle of the divine.

Some say, every soul is the Universe experiencing itself in form (others believe in the great creator or spirit and give it different names). And perhaps, as we once believed, angels do visit every newborn — not only the son of God, but every being that arrives on this planet.

In this sense, Christmas reminds us to honour birth in all its forms — the birthing of light, of new beginnings, of hope, and of the love we have for each other, in our families, our ancestral threads and in our soul families.

Ancient Echoes of the Solar Child

The symbolism and story of Jesus, the divine child born of a virgin, are not unique to Christianity.
 As author Mark Amaru Pinkham writes, this sacred narrative weaves through many ancient traditions — the story of the Son of God or Solar Child who is born at the darkest moment of the year.

Long before the time of Christ, the Persians celebrated Mithras, the divine son born of a virgin.
 Before Mithras, there were Dionysus in Greece, Osiris in Egypt, Dammuzi in Sumeria, and Murugan in India — all sons of the goddess, all reborn at winter’s turning.

If we travel further back in time, we find the ancient myth of the Green Man — the son of the Earth Goddess, born from her womb at the winter solstice. 
In the Neolithic age, when the divine was seen as feminine, people honoured the Goddess and her Son as the living cycle of renewal. The Sun impregnating the virgin Earth, the Green Man awakening underground, and rising again as the light returned on December 25th.

The ancients were keen observers of the stars and the seasons. Their temples and stone circles mirrored the heavens, following the principle as above, so below. 
To them, the rebirth of the sun was not just an outer event — it was a cosmic reflection of the eternal truth that life always renews itself.

Returning to the True Light

Knowing these stories, I can connect to the magic of Christmas in a more spiritual, deeper way. 
It is a time to honour the stillness, the darkness, the light that is reborn both within and around us.

So this year, I’ve decorated my tree again. Every time I see it, I feel joy — because it connects me back to the ancient ways of our ancestors, who have managed to honour this time over thousands of years - no matter which faith was at the forefront of the culture at that point in time.

May your season be filled with light, warmth, and remembrance. 
And may you, too, feel the quiet magic of this time.

Sources & Inspiration


I would like to give thanks to the inspiration and wisdom I have received from different sources on this topic:

– Ma Ananda Sarita, who references the story of the son of God and quoted from books from Mark Amaru Pinkham


– Seren Bertrand, for her historical research on Sami and Siberian shamanism and ancient reindeer traditions


– Cissi Williams, for her insights into Celtic and Norse Yule mythology and the symbolism of the World Tree