Yule is the time of year most dedicated to Holda, and for those who want to quietly honour her, this can be done on each day throughout the season. On each of these days, you will make and eat one of her sacred foods.

Dec. 21, Yule: When you wake up in the morning, pack up all fibre arts in the house, especially any spinning. Put them all in a nice box. Make an altar to Holda; you can check the link on this site to altar suggestions if you like. Put the box on the altar and ask her to bless it all. Put your hands palm down on the altar and ask her to bless them as well. The fibre arts should all stay on the altar until after the New Year. Next, go to the kitchen and make gingerbread cookies, dusted with powdered sugar like Holda’s snowflakes.

Dec. 22: Make oatmeal in the morning. Clean up after the Yule celebration. Sweep the house with a broom – for carpeted floors, do a symbolic sweeping and then actually vacuum. Open the window at the highest point, shake the broom out the window to drive out all negativity, and then ask Holda to bring happiness to your home.

Dec. 23: Bake oatcakes. As you do so, ask Holda to bless the hearth.

Dec. 24: Pickled herrings are on the menu – another of Holda’s sacred foods. Clean the bathroom and ask Holda for her blessing to keep your house’s waterways clear.

Dec. 25: If you celebrate Christmas with relatives, as some Pagans do, make a white cake covered with white frosting, for Holda’s snowy days. Give someone a gift of a new feather pillow.

Dec. 26: Make some kind of dessert with elderberries – elderberry pie, or something involving elderberry jam. Organize the medicine cabinet and ask Holda for a healthy year.

Dec. 27: Dumplings today, with or without soup. Use a bit of wintergreen oil in the wash water and mop the floors. As you do so, ask Holda for a clean year.

Dec. 28: Bake biscuits with flaxseed in them. Do laundry, and put a drop of wintergreen oil in the wash water. Ask Holda to keep everyone clothed this year.

Dec. 29: Make a dessert that looks like elf hats, or elfin food in some way. Put some of it out for the Huldrefolk, and ask Holda to keep things from mysteriously vanishing this year.

Dec. 30: Bake more cookies with powdered sugar, such as pfeffernusse. Save half to eat during tomorrow night’s celebrations. Clean the inside of the windows, and then place a candle in at least one window. Ask Holda to spare you from disastrous weather this winter.

Dec. 31: Elderberry wine, as part of the New Year’s Eve celebration. Ask Holda to keep everyone in the family safe, especially the mothers and children.

Jan. 1: New Year’s Day. This is a day of relaxation. Do nothing today except rest. Tomorrow, the fibre arts come out and the cleanup commences. Drink elderflower tea to regain your strength.