Welcome to the Avalonian Sigs' Winter Holidays Page! Here you will find email signatures for two Wiccan Sabbats, Yule and Imbolc, in addition to the more commonly known Winter holidays: Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day (which was originally Ostara). My separate Spring and Summer Sabbats page begins with Ostara.

Note: A limited selection of erotic holiday sigs can be found on the Erotic Sigs Page

I won't be doing any overtly Christian sigs for Yule/Christmas. However, my friend Marie has made some FABULOUS Christian sigs. And she has some lovely Solstice sigs, too. (She also has a LOT of Christmas kitty sigs.) Many of her sigs DO contain rams and sidebars (although she has included instructions for removing the sidebars, if necessary).
Click here to go to her Holiday Sigs page:

About the Horned God Sig: The artist who drew this fabulous graphic is Jen Delyth. I discovered her work years ago at the California Harvest Festival and have bought her T-shirts, cards, and window decals~both for myself and for gifts. The "Yule Stag" is used here with permission from the artist. This is just one example of her many impressive celtic designs, which you can see on her website by clicking here: Keltic Designs

About the King Stag Sig: Both of the stag graphics on this one are needlework! I found the top one on this page: Lambert Costumes The larger graphic on the bottom is actually a cross-stitch kit! You can find the complete range at: MDG Cross Stitch Designs This one is listed under "The Animal Kingdom".

About the Sparkly Salutations Sig: I have posted this sig with a "Merry Christmas" header. To change it to a Solstice/Yule header: After you paste it into your signature box, find the part that says aniMerryXmasSilv.gif and back over it with your Delete Key. Then type in (or paste) aniBlessedYule50.gif NO typos (or it won't work :-)

The cultural icon that we know today as Santa Claus is the result of the blending of many different cultures and customs over thousands of years. A 4th century bishop named Nicholas of Myra (in what is now Turkey), was probably the most influential person in the shaping of today's Santa Claus. St. Nicholas, as he was later known, was legendary for his kindness and generosity, and he was adopted by many groups as their patron saint.

December 6th, the date of his death, marked the beginning of the early Christmas season. On St. Nicholas Eve, children would set out food for the saint and straw for his horse; and in the morning the good children would find these items replaced with sweets and toys.

This custom is still seen today with the yearly arrival in Dutch towns of Sinterklaas on December 5th. Sinterklaas or Sinter Klaas rides into town on his white horse, accompanied by his Moorish sidekick, Blackpieter (or Black Peter). Black Peter, who leaps from rooftop to rooftop, throwing gifts down chimneys, is the forerunner of the elves accompanying Santa Claus today.

In the 1600's the Dutch brought Sinterklaas to the American colonies. English speaking children pronounced his name "Sainty Claus," and over the years it evolved into Santa Claus. (See Sinterklaas sig, below.)

In 1809, American writer Washington Irving created a new version of the old Saint Nicholas. Irving described Santa as a jolly Dutchman who smoked a pipe, wore baggy pants, and rode over the treetops in a horse-drawn wagon dropping gifts down chimneys.

Then in 1823, Clement C. Moore wrote the famous poem, "A Visit From St. Nicholas," now known as "The Night Before Christmas." Moore wrote the poem for his children and traded in Santa's horse and wagon for a sleigh and reindeer, describing him the way we think of Santa today: jolly.

Then in 1863, illustrator Thomas Nast solidified this new visual image of Santa Claus by drawing him as Moore had described him. Nast drew Santa dressed in red and gave him a home in the North Pole. For 23 years Nast drew Christmas pictures for Harper's Weekly magazine~helping to shape the image of Santa that we have today. (See Thomas Nast Santa sig, below.)

Coca-Cola hired German artist Haddon Sundblom to draw Santa for an advertising campaign in 1931. Sundblom's rendition of Santa (a grandfatherly man with twinkling eyes) further fixed the public's image of Santa Claus.

Santa Claus has evolved over the centuries into the kind, loving figure we know today. He stands for all the goodness and innocence of childhood.

Many thanks to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library for their "Legends of Christmas" site, which traces the history of many Christmas traditions. You can go there now by clicking here:

Did you know that gingerbread men originated in Holland, too? There, they are called speculaas and are sold in all the bakeries, beginning in November. For more information on Dutch Christmas, check out this wonderful site:

Now I've put all my animated sparkly banners on one site: Avalonian Holiday Banners

I hope you enjoy them.

The "Emerald Isle" sig (a St. Patrick's Day sig) has two versions of Danny Boy available. If you'd like a more upbeat midi, after you have loaded the sig into your sig box, change the 1 behind DannyBoy to a 2. It's that SIMPLE!

Happy Holidays!