I love Litha. The fairy lore, the summer sun, feeling the magic all around. When I was younger and childfree, I made much more of an effort to celebrate traditionally, by decorating an altar and doing a small ritual. Now that I have a young toddler at home, things look a little different. The first year she was born we couldn't do much, since she was only a few months old. Last year, we celebrated with friends over to swim and play in the sprinklers. That night we grilled and Beans got her first roasted marshmallow and watched the fire flies. This year, I'm not sure what we will do, since my husband works strange hours. Either way, I'm sure it will involve a lot of sun and swimming!
Like with a lot of Sabbats, there aren't a lot of traditions or stories for children, to help get them excited for the season. But I have found a few books and ideas for you, so let's get started with the book list!
Keep in mind these are meant to be for preschool aged children. If you have older kids you can probably find more resources on the science of the solstice and sun mythology from around the world. These books are related to the solstice, faeries, and general summer.
We really like this one. A simple picture book about the sights and sounds of summer.
This one is on my list, but I have not read it yet. If you can find it, go for it; most books can be paraphrased to be appropriate for younger children.
Another cute, simple story about summertime. I really like to incorporate books like these in our reading time to get Beans familiar with all aspects of the seasons.
This is such a sweet, magical story about fairies celebrating the summer.
Beans really liked this one because it included popsicles and she loves her popsicles. It incorporates colors in with different things we see and experience in the summer, so this book is definitely for younger children.
Aside from water play, seasonal stories and firing up the grill, a few more things we like to do around solstice are...
-harvesting herbs. We combine this act with our herbal flash cards. These can be found all over etsy. The cards we use can be found Here
-Making or just wearing flower crowns.
-Collecting shells from the beach or river.
-Leaving offerings to the fae, as well as discussing them with Beans and reading stories and poetry involving them.
-Staying up late and chasing fireflies. The simplest magick!
-eating food right out of the garden. Beans's favorite are fresh tomatoes.
-on the topic of foods, I see a lot of people on Instagram making really lovely honey cakes and desserts. Thats great, but the solstice is going to be 100 degrees out here and I have no intention of running the oven. So we plan to have an early morning breakfast of honey toast and fresh berries, and maybe make some sun tea with the herbs we harvest. If you can't do that, lemonade is perfect.
What plans do you have to celebrate with your littles?
Happy solstice!
-Danielle
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