The SS Family

5. The Jul Wreath

On the first Jul Sunday the Jul Wreath is hung up in the living room. Its fir branches fill the house with pre
Yuletide smells, its red ribbons awaken the joy for the coming celebrations, and its red candles brighten up the
dark winter evenings. The Yuletide Wreath is equivalent to the old Sun Wheel, and as it is made from living
greenery it reminds us of the old Tree Of Life. Once we have made these connections we will surely make the
right preparations for the festival.
The SS Man should go to his friendly cartwright and ask for a wooden wheel of about 50 to 80 cm diameter.
There is bound to be a spare one lying about. He cuts off one side of the hub so the wheel can lie flat. It is then
stained dark brown or bright red and so becomes the Jul Wheel of the family, which should be kept on a low
table or the family chest in a corner of the living room.

The Jul Wheel

The Jul Wheel or Sun Wheel with its deep rooted Germanic religious meaning is utilised as the base for the SS tree
A small, young, forked tree trunk without branches is stuck into the centre of the hub, so we can recreate the
Tree Of Life growing from the Sun Wheel which will be used by the SS-family at every celebration during the
year.
Instead of the cart wheel you can use a wooden wheel with the dividers inset and decorated with Runic letters.
The tree should still be fixed in the centre. The green tree may be replaced every year by the trunk of the
Yuletide tree at the end of the season. It is important that the wooden wheel has replaced the meaningless cast
iron Christmas tree stand, which has no place in an SS home. The same goes for electric tree lights and the
horrible glass decorations for the tree.
We now place red ribbon both ways across the fork of the tree, the ends of which are tied to the Jul Wreath,
which now hangs freely about half way up the tree.

The SS Tree

The typical SS Yuletide Tree sits in the center of the family chest; directly behind is a Wedding Plate and on either side is a

Jul Plate

The Jul Wreath is made by binding bundles of small pine twigs around a wooden hoop (a child's toy hoop is

ideal), and fastening 4 red candles on it.

When the SS Woman prepares the table for afternoon coffee on the first Jul Sunday, she decorates it with further

twigs of pine and lights the first candle on the Jul Wreath. Every following Sunday an additional candle on the

Jul Wreath is lit, thereby the lights grow slowly until there is an explosion of lights on the Yuletide Tree by the

time of Winter Solstice, portraying the Winter Solstice fires. It is also customary to light 4 candles on the first

Sunday, decreasing every week by 1 candle. This should point to the dying old year, which is reborn in the many

candles on the Yuletide Tree even as its last candle dies away.