The Celebration of Yule

I see I am not the only Pagan here.
Yule to me is the most spirutal time of the year. It is the time we leave the things we no longer need, we embrace the New Year. We mourn what we lost, then rejoice at the turnng of the wheel, it always turns, we can't stop it. Good or bad, the wheel turns.
Pagans and many others have a tradition of staying up all night on the Solstice. We light bon fires, candles, leave all the lights on in the house. It is to tell the Sun to come back. The darkest night. It is a vigil I was proud to do last year, first time. I welcomed the Sunrise like I had never seen it before.
You go through some soul searching, it is an extremly powerful thing.
I would be honored if we could on this board get a group that stays up all night, to celebrate the Sun.

Totally OT: In this country the word for 'Christmas' is Joulu, which is a straight translation from Yule. Even though christianity was forced to 'rule' over our paganistic origins, we never changed the name of Yule to anything. It has also remained more as a paganistic fest, though of course some people do rather celebrate the birthday of Jesus (which actually is in summer..).

After Halloween, Yule is my favorite time.
I've never stayed up to see the sunrise, and don't imagine I'd be able to. I do light lots of candles and leave the Christmas tree lights on all night.
One of my favorite things to do is simply sit outside in the darkness and think. Unfortunately, it's usually way too cold here to sit out for long.
I'd love to hear how others celebrate Yule.

I actually just don't holiday much at all. I'm one of those people that if we don't shut down for the holiday, I'll volunteer to work in place of someone with kids at home or family coming in.

My youngest sister is a pagan though, and she and her friends actually burn a yule log through the night. It's like half a tree they feed into the fire as the night goes on.

This year will be the first year that i get to celebrate Yule with another Pagan. My fiance and i met online, and last year he was 3000 miles away from me. This year we have our own apartment! I cant wait to decorate out tree on Yule and sit there sipping eggnog. He and i were both raised christian (He mormon and I catholic) and followed our own seperate paths, first to paganism then to eachother. (we met in a religious debate forum) The holidays have always felt like such a magickal time of year for me, and it never mattered to me what holiday was being celebrated by who. I have christian family, both my own and inlaws. Jewish friends, and everything in between and i just love the feeling of the holidays from Thanksgiving to New Years day.

Though i will be celebrating Yule with my hubby to be this year, we will be celebrating Yule from the solstice through Christmas so we can include our family and they us though our beliefs differ. If we have the internet at home on Yule i would love to stay up with you guys...however i more than likely will have work the next day.