Season’s Greetings!
Thank you once again to all those who joined in for last week’s Weekly Witchy Challenge - The Chakras 
The colorful magick of last week’s chakra energy work gets even brighter this week, as we celebrate the many lights and joys of the season! 
The theme for this festive challenge, suggested by the lovely @Garnet, is…
13 Days of Holiday Celebrations 
Welcome to the final, festive challenge of 2022!
No matter which holidays you are celebrating over the coming days, take some time to bless your personal traditions with a little magickal enhancement!
The 12 Days of Yule are upon us! With the arrival of the Winter Solstice (Summer Solstice for friends in the Southern Hemisphere) comes the many various festivities enjoyed by those of numerous cultures and traditions. Whether you and your family honor the 12 Days of Yule, Litha, the solstice, Christmas, New Year’s, or others- now is a time of bountiful joy and fun celebrations.
And what makes something fun even more exciting? Why, a sprinkle of spellwork and mouthful of magick, of course! 
'Tis the busiest time of the year! As such, this is an extended challenge and all are encouraged to approach it in a way that respects their time and energy levels. As you enjoy the most of this eventful time of year , please know that it is absolutely okay for your entry to be as extravagant or as simple as your needs allow
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This week’s challenge is all about finding ways to add magick to enhance your holidays- but as always, how you do so is up to you!
So are you ready? Because it’s…
CHALLENGE TIME!
Picture from Pixabay
STEP 1 : Making the Magical Season Magickal
This challenge is all about enhancing the holidays with magick- but how you choose to take on this theme is up to you!
Still not sure where to begin?
To help you get started, the following list has a few suggestions in which a witch might approach this challenge.
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Celebrate Some (or All!) of the 12 Themes of Yule
You may have heard of the 12 Days of Yule (the pagan origin of the 12 Days of Christmas), but did you know that some traditions celebrate each day of the 12 as its own holiday, complete with a theme of its own?
Some witches honor a different deity for each of the days, while other traditions celebrate a theme or virtue. Others spend each day reflecting on one of the 12 months, while yet others interpret the 12 Days in their own unique ways.
For this challenge, you might consider doing a spell or ritual that aligns with the theme/virtue/deity/etc of each day (or even just the days and themes that call to you!). Choose your own, check your tradition, or refer to these helpful lists to discover the correspondences of the 12 Days of Yule:
- 12 Nights of Yule in some Norse Traditions:
- 12 Nights of Yule as 12 Virtues:
- 12 Nights of Yule as Reflections on the 12 Months of Year
- December
- February
- March
- April
- May
- June
- July
- August
- September
- October
- November
- January
List from Yule Celebrations Discussion
More information and additional interpretations of the 12 Nights of Yule can be found in:
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Seasonal Pagan Folklore
The cold and dark season is a great time to gather by the fire and tell stories of old- with the coven gathered here for the challenge, feel free to share any fun pagan or magical stories, folklore, legends, and more that celebrate the season! 
Here are a few wintery and solstice tales that might spark some inspiration for your search:
The Yule Cat: An Icelandic Folk Tale
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Seasonal Spellwork
No matter what you are celebrating, now is a great time to show off your seasonal spellwork! Here are few holiday-based rituals you might consider for the coming days:
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Out With the Old, In With the New
The holidays mark the end of one calendar year and herald in the new year to come- for those who like to celebrate the start of the Gregorian Calendar, now is a great time to do some New Year’s work, wish making, goal setting, and more!
Burn Away the Past: Fire Spell for a Fresh Start
New Beginnings: Door Opener Key Spell
Road Opener Spell for New Paths
For additional New Year’s spellwork and inspiration, check out the coven entries shared in the previous Passage Into the New Year and Goal-Setting challenges
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What Makes the Holidays Special
In her challenge theme suggestion, @Garnet posed the following question to the coven:
How do you celebrate Christmas (winter solstice) and why?
For your challenge entry, consider exploring this by reflecting on your own celebrations with some magickal journalling or meditation:
→ How did your celebrations develop: are they based in tradition, or of your own loving creation?
→ Do you involve magick or other religions/traditions/beliefs at all?
→ Who do you like to/wish you could spend this time with?
→ Why do you celebrate in the way you do- what makes your methods special to you?
Feel free to add a page to your Book of Mirrors and, if you are comfortable doing so, share your reflections with the coven!
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Holiday Crafting
For Art Witches and all crafters in the Craft, now is a wonderful time to share your skills and give smiles to all! A great way to enter this challenge and pass around some seasonal joy is by creating and sharing your talents 
Here are few seasonal craft ideas that may inspire you:
Winter Solstice and Yule Spell Bottle
For more crafting ideas and inspiration, feel free to view the coven entries shared in the previous HandCrafting Challenge
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…And More!
The suggestions above are just that- simple suggestions! If you feel called to explore the holidays and add seasonal magick in another way, please feel free to do so! 
As always, all witches are encouraged to embrace their own unique practice with how they explore the theme
STEP 2 : Share Your Experience 
Click here for notes about challenge inclusivity
Everyone is welcome to join the challenge by practicing magick in line with the current theme. For lurkers and those who don’t feel comfortable sharing, it is absolutely okay to follow along with the challenge but keep your entry personal. Feel free to join in spirit and do what feels most comfortable for you!
That being said, please know that if you would like to receive a prize and a public shout-out, it is required that you share your experience.
For your entry to be counted towards the challenge, please share:
- How you added some magick to your holidays celebrations
Getting Your Credit 
In order for your entry to be counted, all you have to do is write/share about your experience and label it as your challenge entry. There is a lot of chatting here (which is awesome- chatting and discussion are very welcome!) so please clearly write that it is your entry so I know to count it! 
Where Should I Share My Entry? 
Click here for instructions on where to share your entry
You are welcome to post it right here- just click “reply” 
to this post and write your experience in the text box that pops up!
Alternatively, you could create a new thread in the forum (doing so keeps your entry separate and is a good option if you have a lot to share)
Note : If you do choose to create a new thread, please add the “challenge-entry” tag and/or add a hyperlink back to this post so that it can be easily found- thank you! 
This challenge will close in 13 DAYS
This is an extended challenge! You have extra time to explore the theme this week, so please feel free to share multiple entries or do a multi-step approach to this challenge. Have fun!
To join in, please share your experience by:
Tuesday, January 3 at 7:00 AM CET (Central European Time)
( Time Converter: 2023-01-03T06:00:00Z)
(Note that the time zone is CET- if you don’t see your time displayed above, you can use this time zone calculator to check for your time zone!)
Prizes 
For their efforts, all participants will receive a special shout-out and a small prize!
Acknowledgments will be given in a Props and Presents Post that will appear in the forums on Tuesday.
After the challenge closes, you are still very welcome to post but please be aware that no additional prizes will be given. This discussion will remain open for about a week after the challenge finishes.
A warm reminder that all challenges are designed to be very open- everyone is encouraged to participate in a way that honors and reflects their unique practice
If you have any doubts about if something is acceptable to post or say, please double-check with the Forum FAQ and/or reach out to your friendly Moderator Team .
And for those new to challenges- welcome! Know that the goal of these activities is to help you further diversify and strengthen your abilities and to bring together the Spells8 forum family to inspire and support one another in creative ways
Picture from Pixabay
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May your holidays be happy, bountiful, and bright
May your home fill with joy, throughout day and night
May your halls ring with laughter, cheer and glee-
Have a blessed season, so mote it be!
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Blessed Holidays!
I was almost tempted to ask 
I believe I am overthinking them, but it’s a theme of mine this time of year 
I’m being silly but serious. I worship Egyptian dieties. My 1st was and is Isis, Bast, Ra, Sekhmet and so forth.
The pictures are beautiful- it looks like you had perfect weather for the summer solstice 
Wishing you a happy, bright, and blessed Litha! 
Wire wrapping is tough, but it looks like you’ve mastered it. The copper swirl on the right is perfectly balanced! Thank you so much for sharing your lovely crafts- wishing you and your husband a very happy and blessed Yule and Christmas!