A nice, simple family ritual written by Ceisiwr Serith and is featured in his book The Pagan Family. Which let me tell you, is REALLY hard to find! I got lucky and found my copy at the local thrift store! Yay!
After decorating the tree, but before lighting it (except for a quick check of the lights), eat your evening meal. Use your best dishes and have appropriate foods. These could be the foods listed above or culturally traditional Midwinter and festival foods.
After your meal, clear the table. Wash and dry the dishes and put them away. Then take every candle you own and put it in some kind of holder. Use saucers and bowls if you run out of candlesticks. Melt some wax onto the dish and stick the candle in it before the wax hardens. You might want to do this earlier in the day as it can take some time. Put all these candles on the table, with your Sun candle in the middle. Turn off every light in the house. When everyone is seated and the house is dark, an adult says:
For half the year, day by day,
slowly the world has grown darker.
For half the year, night by night,
slowly the dark has grown longer.
Tonight that ends and the wheel turns.
Our land turns back to the light.
Light the sun candle, and continue:
The darkness was never complete
A spark was always waiting,
to return and turn again.
And now it will grow greater and greater.
The light will come back.
The cold will go away.
And oncce more we will dance in the warmth
until the wheel turns again.
It has always been this way,
The wheel turning from darkness to light and back again
and our people have always known this and have turned with it.
All: The wheel is turning and light's returning.
An adult starts a litany. The response to each line is:
Light is reborn.
With each answer another candle is lit, until they are all burning. The lines of the litany can go like this:
In the greatest darkness
Out of Winter's cold
From our deepest fears
When we most despair
When all seems lost
When the earth lies waste
When animals hide
From fallen leaves
When the ground is hard
From the midst of the wasteland
When hope is gone
Out from the hard times.
Continue in this way until half the candles are lit. Then change the emphasis of the litany like this:
Shadows are fleeing
Light is returning
Warmth will come again
Summer will be here once more
Plants will grow again
Animals will be seen once more
Life will continue
Green will come again
Death will not be forever.
Continue until all the candles are lit. When they are, take a deep breath, bask in the candlelight for just a second, and then run through the house (carry small children) and turn on every light you have. Running is important to add a touch of festivity and abandon. Don't forget closets, attics, stoves, and even flashlights. If you have lights for decorations on a Yule tree or outside, turn them on as well. You will find that children are quite good at finding lights you have forgotten.
When all the lights are on, return to the table. Sit in the glow for a while, eating, drinking, and talking. This is one of my favorite moments of the year; I can feel the light throbbing through the walls. For a family in which turning off unneeded lights is an obsession, this is a special moment indeed. The feeling stays with me for days.
Bring out the cookies and eggnog and have some fun. Then slowly go through the house again, turning the lights back off. Blow out the candles. Leave the Sun candle burning until you have to go to bed. Light it first thing in the morning and leave it burning all day if you can. Burn it each day as long as the tree is up.
You may wish instead to celebrate at dawn. If you have adopted the Christian custom of presents under the tree, there is a good chance your children will be getting up at dawn anyway. Light the candles and house lights as soon as you see the sun (alternatively, you can start at false dawn, the period of growing light before the sun actually rises.) Because you will be present at the actual rebirth of the sun, dispense with the words for the lighting, or limit them to a simple:
The Sun is back
He is born again.
Then, with the lights still burning, you can open presents and eat breakfast.