A Christmas Origin Story

Once upon a time, there was a community. It was made up of many families who lived and traveled together, from the youngest babies to the oldest elders. They lived without the technologies of today we can take for granted — no cars and planes to get places faster than our feet can take us, no phones and computers to share information in an instant, no grocery stores to bring us food and toys from far away, no electricity to light the dark nights with the flip of a switch.

Yet somehow, they found ways to look after everyone’s needs and fulfill their heart’s desires. It wasn’t always easy. Everyone had to pitch in to keep the community running smoothly, without fighting and hunger. They had to hunt animals, gather nuts and berries, collect water from the rivers, harvest trees to make houses and furniture, knit clothes, gather dry wood for fires, and roam far and wide to get all these things right when and where they grew.

What they could eat and make at any given time all depended on the climate and seasons, the movement of the earth and stars around the sun. To remember all this information that helped them thrive, they told stories. So when one of the elders in the community passed on, there was always someone who remembered their stories that showed them how to get what they needed when they needed it.

The hardest time of every year came in December. That was when the Earth turned away from the sun, so the days were short and cold, and the nights long and colder. Not much grew in this time; the plants and animals all returned to their roots or their dens to store energy, and so did the people. The warmth of the summertime left them with a bountiful harvest of delicious fruits, vegetables, and more livestock and game animals than they could eat in one sitting. So they had many feasts, and set about drying the meat into jerky or stewing the fruits and vegetables into preserves like jelly, nut butter, pickles, salsa, sauces, and so much more.

Some of the fruits fermented in barrels. The grapes became wine, the apples cider, the pears perry, the barley beer, ready to drink just in time for the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice…