Yule / Winter Solstice

This is a one-day, free, family friendly event. Arrive anytime and join the scheduled activities.

Schedule

1:00 — Tree decorating, Crafts, afternoon snacks

3:00 — 4:00 Year and A Day Class

4:15 — Yule Gift Exchange

5:00 –Visit from Father Yule

5:30 — Potluck

6:30 — Ritual Prep, Ritual Conspiracy

7:00 — Ritual

Afterwards: Community time at Family fire circle and in Retreat center, which may include story time & holiday carol singing

Information about the Event:

Food to bring:

• Additional snacks for the afternoon activities are nice but optional
• Potluck Meal: OSS is providing turkey and ham, mashed potatoes and gravy. Please bring a side dish of any kind or dessert that would feed 10 to 12 people. (There is a stove top, but not a working oven.) Crock pots are great!
• Beverages: Adult and/or nonalcoholic beverages for your own consumption. A bottle of libations of some kind to share is nice but optional.

Yule Gift Exchange: (All ages) Anyone who wishes to participate should bring a wrapped gift (price limit of about $10). This can be something magical, silly, practical–really, anything that would make a good gift for someone of any age or gender. This is all ages: adults and children will play the same gift exchange game, and each child who participates will also need their own present to participate.

Other items to bring: A camp chair and some warm wraps or blankets if you want to be outside. A portion of the activities will be outside, so dress warmly! (If the cold is too much, you are free to stay indoors.)

Directions to Oak Spirit Sanctuary

It has come to our attention that some GPS maps send people to the wrong location. OSS is NOT the white house at the 90 degree corner on Cumberland Church Road. The property of OSS is not visible from the road.

Once on Cumberland Church Road, the route is pretty straightforward. You will take a 90 degree turn to the right where you see a white farmhouse. Don’t go straight ahead–there’s a road there but it looks less maintained. Stay on the larger, well-graveled road.

Proceed forward. You will pass a fenced, brown building that looks like a county maintenance building on the left. Just after this, you will see a green dumpster at the entry point to the OSS driveway. Make your right turn here. Proceed slowly all the way up the driveway making no turns. You’ll see a farmhouse up ahead and some fencing with an open gate. You’ve found OSS!

Follow the driveway, this will veer right. Parking is on the left side of the road once you are past the outbuildings and see fields ahead. If it has been raining, we recommend parking pretty close to the road, not all the way forward to the tree line when you pull off to park.