Santa Claus, a figure synonymous with the winter holiday season, has an intriguing history that intertwines Christian traditions with ancient pagan roots.

Many of us are familiar with the merry aspects of winter holidays, but did you know there’s also a lot of cultures around the world have their own spine-tingling traditions that are as fascinating as they are fearsome?

Rich with symbolism, Imbolc is the first herald of the returning sun. Perched inside our warm abodes, we look to the future and know it will inevitably be brighter. With the cold all around us but the sun on the eastern horizon, it’s a perfect time to review the past year and make adjustments for the coming one.

The 13 moon cycle calendar is a pre-Christian lunar calendar that reflects the cycles of nature; the moon, the sun, the woman's monthly cycle. Download one here.

The beautiful and intriguing, alleged reindeer goddess of ancient British Isles, ‘Elen of the Ways’, needs more investigation.

Many of us live with folks who are of different or no faiths. The Winter Solstice can be an excellent cross-cultural winter holiday that everyone can participate in.

Winter Solstice is the celebration of the return of the sun. While this is the day with the shortest amount of sunlight from here forward the days will get longer and the sun higher in the sky. Because of this, any food that suggests or invokes the sun is a perfect fit.

Anyone with an Aquarius signature in your life could tell you that true love is freedom - and isn’t that what Aquarius Season is about?

Track your cycles with the phases of the moon. Download Moon Map here.

Come, come, whoever you are. Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair.

I love the way holidays create the illusion of time standing still. No-one has to be anywhere. No clocks to punch or meetings to rush around for. Today is quiet.

This year, in the beginning, the usual winter holiday festivities felt staged to me. A little barren, a little rote. We had more cash to buy gifts than usual, but this actually made everything a tad more stressful (shopping) and left me feeling hollow. Here’s how to find the magic inside the consumer-driven madness.