✨ Honouring the Winter Solstice: Seasonal Herbs, Folklore & Rituals for the Darkest Night
A Taste of the Season From My Hearth
Winter has always called me back into the kitchen. Not only for elaborate feasts or hearty meals, but for the small, steady rituals that warm the hands and soften the edges of the darker months. Every year, as the light dances a little less bright and the nights stretch long. I return to a handful of brews and bakes, flavours that comfort, scents that transform a quiet evening, and small, ancient gestures that remind me of the light is gathering in the dark, preparing to rise.
Below is one of my dearest traditions, the tea I make whenever I need a cup of gentle brightness.
Winter Sun Tea
A Toast to the Returning Light
Inspired by the spiced brews once shared at Yule and Saturnalia feasts, this tea carries the soft colours of dawn—rose hips, calendula, orange peel—a sunrise you can sip on the longest nights.
🌿 You’ll Need
- 1 tsp rose hips - for colour and vitality
- 1 tsp orange peel - to awaken the senses
- ½ tsp cinnamon chips – for warmt
- 1 tsp calendula petals – for sunlight and cheer
- 1 tsp dried rose petals – for love and beauty
- Optional: a few juniper berries or a pinch of ginger
✨ To Prepare
- Combine all herbs in a teapot or heatproof jar.
- Pour over 2 cups of hot water and cover to steep for 10–15 minutes.
- Strain, sweeten with honey if desired, and sip by candlelight.
💫 Folklore Note
Drinking a spiced infusion on Solstice Eve was said to strengthen the heart and align one’s spirit with the growing sun. Let this tea be a small sunrise in your hands—a reminder that even on the longest nights, brightness can be brewed from simple things.
✨ And More Winter Rituals…A glimpse into the flavours and comforts that fill my season
Beyond this tea, my winter kitchen becomes a quiet altar of warmth and scent. Some days I simmer oranges, juniper, and cedar on the stove, letting the fragrance drift room to room like a gentle blessing. Other nights I mix pine needles with cinnamon and frankincense to make a winter forest incense that carries the breath of evergreens. There are rose hip & hawthorn mulling spices for courage, cranberry & orange shrubs sparkling with midwinter brightness, deep blackberry cordials for reflective evenings, and even saffron–rosemary Lucia buns baked at dawn to honour the slow return of the light.
These small rituals—simmering, steeping, stirring, baking—have become my way of greeting winter with softness and intention. Each one a tiny hearth-fire glowing at the center of the season. If you feel called to explore these recipes and their stories more deeply, they’re gathered lovingly inside my Winter Solstice booklet—a companion for the quiet months, full of folklore, herbs, rituals, and warmth.
✨ A Closing Note for the Winter Recipes
These recipes are more than flavours—they are small rituals of warmth, crafted from winter’s garden and the quiet wisdom of the season. Each simmer, each steep, each golden bun is an invitation:
- to pause,
- to breathe,
- to remember the light that returns gently, inevitably, beautifully.
The herbs woven through these creations—rose hip, hawthorn, blackberry, juniper, orange, cinnamon—are some of humanity’s oldest companions.Their scents echo ancient hearths, old stories, and midwinter fires.May these offerings warm your hands, steady your heart, and remind you that even the smallest act can become a celebration of returning light.
🌞 Returning to the Light Within
As the longest night gives way to dawn, we’re reminded that the rhythm of the earth is also our own. The Solstice teaches us to rest, to listen, and to trust the quiet transformations happening beneath the surface—in the soil, in our hearts, and in that tender place between breaths. May you carry the spirit of this season with you—the scent of evergreen, the warmth of the hearth, the courage of stillness, and the promise of the sun’s return. And when the world grows quiet again, may you remember:
You are the keeper of your own flame.
“In stillness, I rest. In light, I rise and through both, I am renewed.”
If you feel inspired to explore more winter blends, incense, traditions, or goddess lore, I’ve gathered them all into a Solstice booklet , a gentle guide for anyone who loves herbs and the old ways.
You can read more or purchase it here.
Winter Solstice: Folklore, Rituals & Herbal Recipes – Dancing Moon Herbals
- Betty & Sarah
Dancing Moon Herbals
www.dancingmoonherbals.com