Decorated my altar for the Winter Solstice

(Is it just me, or is there something really delightful about looking at other NeoPagan altars online? I love doing it, but I can be a little odd at times.) Anyway, I completely took apart my altar, fixed the basic structure (it’s made of milk-crates, but now they have placemat things on top of them, under the altar cloths, to stop things unbalancing in the gaps! Huzzah!), and then redecorated it entirely for the Winter Solstice/Yule/Alban Arthan.

Now, I’m pretty excited about this, because I’ve never really decorated my altar for the seasons before: I tend to settle on a basic structure I like, stick to it, and just add or subtract a few small objects. I’ve never done an overhaul on this sort of scale before, so I’d love to hear what people think!

Without further ado, here are the pictures:

Some notes on the things on the altar – the central part (the 2nd picture) has on it:

• A new spiral wire candle holder (don’t even get me started on the symbolism of this piece!) from the Salvos – underneath it is a coaster depicting an anthropomorphised sun
• A stoneware offering vessel (the black bowl), containing sandalwood, frankincense and myrrh
• A small corked glass jar (a gift from a friend years ago) containing tiny garnets that I picked out of some dirt from Broken Hill
• 2 Tibetan Buddha statues – gifts from a friend
• A hand-turned wooden goblet (also a gift, from a different friend) containing the first gemstones I ever owned, at the ripe old age of 7!)
• An incense holder featuring (what I think looks like) the face of the Sun God
• A pinecone I’ve had for years (although the altar is largely solar in focus, this is my nod to the Northern/Scandinavian Yule traditions)
• And some various candles

I hope you like my altar, please comment if you have any questions about anything on it, or if you just want to tell me what you think!