Family Life Page: Advice Columns

Selene Silverwind is currently working on a novel based on her serial pagan romance. She lives in Los Angeles, California and can be reached at Slvrwind@aol.com.

The chill of winter has descended and we are enclosing ourselves in our heated houses until the sun returns and warms our hearts and gardens once more. But drawing in doesn't mean shutting down. There are still things we can do that reflect our Pagan family values.

An excellent craft for your child's classroom is one I fondly recall from my childhood. When I was in first grade, my teacher had us make simple clay candleholders. I recommend using the gray air-dry clay you can get at the craft store. You will also need waxed paper or paper plates to use as a work surface. Flatten a lump of clay into a round disk about 4 inches in diameter. Roll another lump into a thin rope and coil it on the center of that disk, creating a circle large enough to hold a candle (test it with a standard taper) and about 3/4 of an inch high. Cut holly leaves and roll two small berries from a bit more clay, then arrange them around the coiled circle. As this clay does not require firing, set it aside until the next day. The next day, the clay can be painted with acrylic paint. If you want the pieces to shine the way kiln-fired and glazed clay does, get a glossy paint or sprinkle glitter into the paint before it dries. This craft is fairly attention intensive, so you may not need to tell a story during craft time, but a story about Mother Nature bringing winter to the land would be appropriate. After the craft, the children can snack on sugar cookies baked in the shape of evergreen trees. If you are doing this craft later in the season, have them make white snowflake shaped candleholders.

This next activity is good for at home children and the classroom alike, especially when another snowfall or cold rain is keeping them indoors at recess. Organize a story go round. Start the story with a seasonal theme, "One day Sammy the Snowflake was playing in a cloud with his snowflake friends when the cloud shook and Sammy fell out of his fluffy home." The next child continues the story. Once each child has contributed a sentence, give the story an ending and ask them to illustrate their sentences, turning all the pages into a class book. To make a book, staple the edges together about 1/4" from the edge with a blank piece at the front and back. Cut two pieces of cardboard 1/4" larger on all three sides. Lay the two pieces of cardboard on a piece of wallpaper, with a 1/2 to 3/4-inch space between them (large enough so the book will open easily). Cut the edges to one inch larger than the cardboard. With a mixture of equal parts water and glue, attach the wallpaper to the cardboard and fold the flaps over. When it is dry, set the spine of the book down on the space between the cardboard and tape the sides to the cardboard (without folding down the pages). Lay the entire book down to one side and cut another piece of wallpaper to cover the first page of the book and the cardboard. Repeat for the back. Glue again. (One side at a time so the pages don't seal together.) When the book is done, read the story again while the children snack on caramel popcorn and juice.

Clothes are a popular holiday gift, but there are many that get nothing for the holidays. Instead of packing the old clothes into a box and shoving it into the garage until some day in the future when you will call a charity to come get it, organize a neighborhood clothing drive. Invite your neighbors over for hot apple cider and homemade cookies and ask them to bring old clothes with them. Call your local homeless or battered women's shelter to come pick the goods up after the party. An alternative is to have your coven or circle sponsor a clothing drive at a local store and donate the bounty to your local charity as a gift from the Pagan community. My organization did this at our last fundraiser and we gathered 700 pounds of clothes in one afternoon!

'Tis the season for empty sidewalks and bare patches of yard. But it's not too cold to have a candle party. Invite all your friends and neighbors to come together for a candle exchange. Each person should bring one candle. Sometime in the middle of the party, gather everyone in the main room for a white elephant type exchange, except in this version, everyone is sure to get something they can actually use. You can also provide thick pillar candles and thin sheets of rolled wax for the children at your party. They can cut shapes out of the wax with cookie cutters and stick them on their pillars (you may need to warm the wax slightly with a candle, but some very thin waxes are designed expressly for this purpose). Now your guests have created their own unique party favors.

Following Yule, children quickly tire of their holiday gifts and are on the hunt for something to do. This is the time to drag out your box of fabric scraps, beads, and baubles. Give your children the task of hunting down the makings of Brighid's bridal gown and bed for Imbolc. Any little bits of lace, silk, or whatever your children deem appropriate, will do. When the time comes, help them dress the bride and her bed for your Imbolc ritual.

Spring will be here soon, but rather than watch out the window in breathless anticipation of the new life about to burst from the ground, take pleasure in this special time of pre-birth. This is a time for quiet and the warmth of the hearth. The cold seems to last forever, but it doesn't. Celebrate it while you can.