These are great.  This year, I am sharing a top ten list around with friends that is more about our place in the universe, but which feels to me like an appropriate offering to ponder at this time of the year:

Neil deGrasse Tyson's Top Ten Favorite Facts About the Universe
Washington Post
Sunday, December 16, 2007; Page M06

10. There are 100,000 times as many stars in the universe as sounds and words ever uttered by all humans who have ever lived.

9. Humans are genetically connected with life on Earth, chemically connected with life on other star systems and atomically connected with all matter in the universe.

8. Dark matter and dark energy make up 94 percent of the universe. We can measure their existence, yet we have no idea what they are.

7. Beneath a thick layer of surface ice, Jupiter's moon Europa likely harbors a liquid ocean kept warm by the gravitational stresses induced by Jupiter and by neighboring moons -- a potential haven for life.

6. An asteroid the size of Mount Everest slammed into Earth 65 million years ago. The ensuing global climatic catastrophe left 70 percent of all the world's species extinct, including the ferocious dinosaurs.

5. There are more molecules of water in a cup of water than cups of water in all the world's oceans. This means that some molecules in every cup of water you drink passed through the kidneys of Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Abe Lincoln or any other historical person of your choosing. Same goes for air: There are more molecules of air in a single breath of air than there are breaths of air in Earth's entire atmosphere. Therefore, some molecules of air you inhale passed through the lungs of Billy the Kid, Joan of Arc, Beethoven, Socrates or any other historical person of your choosing.

4. The laws of physics, as measured here on Earth, apply everywhere else in the universe -- across space and time.

3. Since light takes time to travel from one place to another, the farther out in space you look, the farther back in time you see. With our most powerful telescopes, we can observe the universe all the way back to its earliest moments -- all the way back to the Big Bang itself.

2. With Mars likely to have been wet and fertile before Earth in the early solar system; with known bacteria that can survive extremes of temperature, pressure and radiation; with asteroid impacts that can cast into space rocks that contain bacterial stowaways, allowing life to move between planets, it may be that life on Earth was seeded by life from Mars, making all of us descendants of Martians.

1. With chemical elements forged over 14 billion years in the fires of high-mass stars that exploded into space, and with these elements enriching subsequent generations of stars with carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and other basic ingredients of life itself, we are not just figuratively but literally made of stardust.

I always think about the Solstice, although we don't do anything formal for it.  

In my heart, I think many of the preparations I do for Christmas are really for the Solstice (lights, parties, food).  

What a cool diary, love the artwork and the poetry.

We don't formally celebrate the Solstice, though DD and I talked about it while waiting for the bus this morning. My dad likes to send out Solstice cards, and I often wish people a Merry Solstice.

The reality is that it is far easier to celebrate on the 24th and 25th, because those are the days we can get off of work. :-)

Quietly welcome the return of the sun to the northern hemisphere as we celebrate the darkness of the longest night. We'll stroll together to Hooker Falls in DuPont State Forest on a 1/4-mile moderate trail. Bring flashlights (we'll use them sparingly) and a warm drink to toast the Winter Solstice. Meet at Hooker Falls parking lot on DuPont Rd

But in your summer (June/July). A group of our friends and their children congregate at our family farm for a weekend. We build a bonfire, have a lantern procession, make wreaths with the kids to wear on our heads, and share food. When the procession arrives at the bonfire, we all make a wish for the coming year, and throw our wreaths into the fire. Last year we planted some trees as well (winter is our growing season...we have rain then).

We sound terribly pagan, don't we? Actually, we're not. But it's a great excuse for a nice family get together, and I like acknowledging the seasons in some way.

I used to work at a nature center and we had a big solstice event every year, and later we just started having a party at our house.  Our open house always includes indoor greenery, music, feasting, soups, bread, craft activities for the kids, and a short candle ceremony.  Last year the kids made lanterns.  This year the kids made their own constellations with sticky stars and chalk lines on black construction paper, and they made 'sun bracelets' by tying tinsel and shiny ribbon to glow-stick-bracelets.  We also had musical instruments  in the garage so kids could "scare away winter" or generally made a lot of noise to celebrate the solstice.  We danced to They Might Be Giants' "The sun is a mass of incadecent gas" song.  

At last year's candle ceremony, we turned off all the lights (about 40 ppl in our house) and I briefly talked about what the winter solstice is and then I lit a candle to represent the 'new sun' and our hopes for the coming year.  Then one by one people lit a tea candle from the 'sun', made a blessing/wish for the new year, and placed it in a circle around the sun candle.  The blessings ranged from "good health" to "longer recess" (and the father of the kid who said that followed it up with "and a correspondingly longer school day", lol).  This year we didn't light all the tea candles b/c I was worried about the fire hazard, so I just lit the sun candle and people (mostly the children) verbalized their thoughts for the new year.  Then we went caroling around the neighborhood.

It's sort of funny celebrating the winter solstice in coastal Oregon, where flowers bloom and hummingbirds visit the feeder in December.  Back in Massachusetts the solstice was much colder and snowier and it was easier for me in some ways to recognize this time as being midwinter.  

I really like recognizing the solstice because it connects us to nature, brings in all my favorite seasonal traditions, and takes some of the pressure off Christmas.  I've heard good things about the book Circle Round, but our reference has been Celebrating the Great Mother by Cait Johnson and Maura D. Shaw.

We invited friends and family over for wine, port & yummy cheeses and breads.  It was a celebration of family & friends.  We also told our 3 year old daughter the story of solstice and she and her baby sister opened her solstice presents under the tree.  We also gave her grandparents their gifts.  Normally we go for a walk in the dark and look at the lights (we're in the city so there are tons of Christmas lights up) but this year we didn't due to a combination of weather/aged parents/my pregnancy.

I flirt with the idea of some of the craft/baking ideas but they feel a bit forced to me, so we haven't done them.  We'll bake biscotti today with my mother and do another family solstice dinner.

Essentially, we celebrate solstice more than we celebrate Christmas.  DH is even working this Christmas...