Today it’s the shortest day of the year, and that means celebrating the return of light to the world. The winter solstice is the start of the traditional twelve days of Yule, from 21st December up until 1st January. Thousands of years ago, people would have sacrificed a cow for their community to feast on for the twelve days at a time when food was scarce after the harvest season ended. For our Yule celebration, we’re having turkey. This has been picked by the Princeps in our family, aka the little dude. Let me explain.

Io Saturnalia! My Instagram story on 17th December

On 17th December, we celebrated Saturnalia, an ancient Roman celebration similar to Yule. Traditionally for Saturnalia, the social hierarchy would have been upturned for seven days of feasting, wine-drinking and merriment, and a slave or a child would have been put in charge as the Princeps. Our little literary dude is the Princeps in our family for the festive season. For Saturnalia, I made globi, an ancient Roman dish of cheesy dough balls. In ancient Roman society, a pig would have been sacrificed; since we can’t very well head on over to a neighbouring farm outside of Belfast and butcher someone’s pig, we sufficed with pigs-in-blankets, another seasonal favourite in abundance at this time of year.

Turkey for my work Christmas meal on Friday 19th December

Turkey is a rather recent addition to the Christmas traditions in Ireland. It’s a bird from the Americas that was apparently introduced by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. It seems it was as late as the 1950s when it replaced goose or duck as the main contender for Yuletide dinner. Turkey isn’t something I normally cook at home. I enjoy eating it when I go out for Christmas meals, as I did last Friday at my work Christmas party. This is the first year that I’m cooking and eating turkey for our Yuletide feast.

As for my intermittent fasting and keto diet? I definitely eat higher amounts of carbs than usual at Yule, but I have staved off the sweet treat cravings quite well so far, and I’m confident I can keep up the willpower for the whole two week winter holiday. I like wine with my festive food; usually I restrict myself to one large glass so as not to knock myself out of ketosis, but I don’t bother having limits between Saturnalia, Yule and the New Year. More about that in an upcoming New Year reflection post.

For now, Happy Yule and a Merry Winter Solstice to you all!

Posted by on December 21, 2025 in Random stuff and tagged , , , , .

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About Leilanie Stewart

Leilanie Stewart is an award-winning author and poet from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She writes ghost and psychological horror, as well as experimental poetry. Her writing confronts the nature of self; her novels feature main characters on a dark psychological journey who have a crisis and create a new sense of identity. She began writing for publication while working as an English teacher in Japan, a career pathway that has influenced themes in her writing. Her former career as an Archaeologist has also inspired her writing and she has incorporated elements of archaeology and mythology into both her fiction and poetry. In addition to promoting her own work, Leilanie runs Bindweed Anthologies, a creative writing publication with her writer husband, Joseph Robert. Aside from publishing pursuits, Leilanie enjoys spending time with her husband and their lively literary lad, a voracious reader of sea monster books.

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