At Home: Children’s Day & Winter Solstice Celebration

by Larry Steele and Robin Willett

Celebration marks every season and it’s Children’s Day & Winter Solstice that blaze in December. “Precisely because this year is different, we felt a deep call to loft the light of Children’s Day” said Robin Willett. “The seasonal rituals we share in Shambhala are such an important part of nurturing culture and understanding, of bringing our community together in celebration and remembering our good hearts.”

Shambhala children and their families can celebrate our seasonal traditions while staying safe at home, thanks to the Shambhala Touching Earth Collective and our sangha’s playful and creative Children and Family Programs team.

We can’t enjoy all the traditions of Winter together like we do in most years, so a group of wise and good-humored women from New York Shambhala and the Touching Earth Collective will raise the spark and joy of Children’s Day with a global online celebration on Sunday, December 20th at 12:00 PM PST.

See what will happen at the Celebration and register (please) here: Global Children’s Day Celebration

Locally, we made a Children’s Day & Solstice Celebration Hearth Kit for children and their families to help celebrate at home.

Inside the Children’s Hearth Kit, families will find a candle and a Gingerbread Buddha drawing that are part of the online celebration. Families will also find a paperwhite flower bulb to grow and decorate and a treasure hunt based on Iliana: A Winter Solstice Tale, with clues and Tiger-Lion-Garuda-Dragon treasure to find. There’s a garland to assemble, wrapped candies, a gift or two, and a Saffron Sun Bread recipe. (Grateful thanks go to Jack Nyland (Gingerbread Buddha) and Theresa Spicer (Sun Bread recipe). Inspiration for creating the Children’s shrine and descriptions of the cultural roots of Solstice are included.

Families have a wonderful opportunity to re-create the tradition and practice of Children’s Day at home. For children who are active in Seattle Shambhala’s Children’s Programs, the Hearth Kits will arrive in time for the online celebration,12/20, and Children’s Day, officially on the Winter Solstice, 12/21.

The Children’s Day Team is radiating warm and joyful good wishes to you all.

Cheerio! From Robin, Tom Gaylord, Kate Koshnick, Kathryn Larsson, Trevor Slocum, and Van Christensen.

And Happy Solstice from all of us on the Newsletter Team: Larry Steele, Stacy Hall de Gomez, Annica Holder, Andrea D’Asaro, and Janine Bloomfield.