Pagan-friendly Yule/Solstice/Holiday Movies?

[Swampdweller900]

Hey y'all - with Solstice and Yule only weeks away, just wondering what your favorite pagan-friendly winter holiday movies are.

Personally, Scrooged is my favorite version of an Xmas Carol, which is pagan-ish-friendly, but it's not exactly pagan-forward.

 

[Rowena]

Rare Exports
Not exactly a pagan movie - but pagan friendly.

 

[sahgwa]

Christmas is at its heart pagan. We all know this. So asking for pagan friendly movies is to me like asking for a vegan steak. It's like. Celebrate the holiday/solstice or don't. Like, whether there was a historical Jesus or not is at this point moot because the Romans in their political genius made it a usurping of the Osiris and other dying king and mage myths. This label obsessed generation is funny. 'pagan friendly '
To be pagan is to be counter culture . Not to look for validation in mainstream films.
It's a bit nonsensical of a question.

That said, I think any holiday film that makes you laugh is great. I like National lampoons Christmas Vacation. It literally satirises the Christian commercialism

 

[h3x1n9]

Polar express- in structure its a initiation. Heroes journey-crossing a liminal realms - test of believe (gnosis) with a psychopomp (conductor) revelation and return.

Fav shadow work movie is Black Swan btw

 

[Kepler]

Four Rooms(1995) is set on New Year's Eve. The Missing Ingredient segment an example of the changing public attitudes of acceptance and integration of wild women reconstructing mythos leading into Xennial movies like The Craft.

 

[Swampdweller900]

Christmas is at its heart pagan. We all know this. So asking for pagan friendly movies is to me like asking for a vegan steak. It's like. Celebrate the holiday/solstice or don't. Like, whether there was a historical Jesus or not is at this point moot because the Romans in their political genius made it a usurping of the Osiris and other dying king and mage myths. This label obsessed generation is funny. 'pagan friendly '
To be pagan is to be counter culture . Not to look for validation in mainstream films.
It's a bit nonsensical of a question.

That said, I think any holiday film that makes you laugh is great. I like National lampoons Christmas Vacation. It literally satirises the Christian commercialism

Yes, for sure Christmas is at its core pagan in origins, which to me means that pagan holiday traditions are what we all have a right to celebrate as they were here first. Yule, Solstice, Saturnalia, New Year's Eve - all variations of winter holidays free from the happenings of the Levant. I would, in fact, very much like to celebrate the Solstice without needing to run it through the filter of Hollywood.

Being pagan is only counter culture now in Abrahamic-dominant societies, as it's their term for non-followers of Yahweh (who was once a single god of many in a pantheon). For centuries Christians were the counter-culture in polytheistic societies. That other cultures came and held on to someone else's traditions for political convenience and adapted them to be their own doesn't mean they won the right to do what they please with all holidays and force others to their will.

 

[Yazata]

Not sure how to interpret "pagan-friendly". Does it mean there are no witches being burned in it?
The one usually brought up is Hogfather (which I really thought was lame ) but
Gremlins is a favourite Christmas movie. Maybe because the Mogwai are Chinese you can count it as pagan.

 

[Morell]

Not exactly holiday movie, but Rolli and the spirit of the woods is lovely and there are actually no humans there. Very pagan styled movie.

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[nutmeg]

This one isn't quite a holiday movie but it was just released "Witchy Ways" it's a pagan friendly romance movie that is surprizingly quite good.

 

[sahgwa]

Yes, for sure Christmas is at its core pagan in origins, which to me means that pagan holiday traditions are what we all have a right to celebrate as they were here first. Yule, Solstice, Saturnalia, New Year's Eve - all variations of winter holidays free from the happenings of the Levant. I would, in fact, very much like to celebrate the Solstice without needing to run it through the filter of Hollywood.

Being pagan is only counter culture now in Abrahamic-dominant societies, as it's their term for non-followers of Yahweh (who was once a single god of many in a pantheon). For centuries Christians were the counter-culture in polytheistic societies. That other cultures came and held on to someone else's traditions for political convenience and adapted them to be their own doesn't mean they won the right to do what they please with all holidays and force others to their will.

You make it sound like someone is oppressing you physically, forcing you to go to church or it's the stake for you! lol Using the words 'have a right to'. Not everything is about civil rights politics or labels.
Celebrate whatever you want.
At this point in time being pagan is cool, it seems like.
No one has truly negatively judged pagans for like 50 years, if you are talking any kind of real world effect. Being shunned by your family doesn't count .
But we are just talking to the walls about nothing much in this vein. As far as films with pagan themes which would be nice during the holidays, what about a good ol Saturnalia?
Why not watch Felini's Satyricon and pretend you are honouring Old Father Time and the friendly insane Bacchus with a bacchanalia and saturnalia?

 

[Swampdweller900]

Not everything is about civil rights politics or labels.

I don't mean literal rights in the legal sense - I meant in the context of your claim that Christmas is pagan in origin, so in terms of dominant culture and who did what first, pagan winter celebrations (even Bodhi day for Buddhists) would then have as much a reason to be celebrated as newer holidays. Which, of course, was not the case as waves of forced religious conversion or death rolled through Europe. Though, the switch was not quick. Prior to Victorian England and Dickens, Christmas was not a major holiday specifically to further surpress pagan ties to Solstice and Yule, which lasted centuries.

While it sounds nice to think pagans are cool now, there's also another thread in this forum about all the people practicing in secret. Sure, that's also a bit about their practices as a function of their methods, but if being pagan was so cool, I would be seeing solstice decoration ads on Instagram and getting spam about Cool Dec 21 Deals! and there would be local Solstice events (there are none near me). The Google Tag Managers on this forum mean the Ads profile database knows IRL (or tries to) who is on this forum, and will list our religion as "other" most likely.

Are we tolerated? Sure. But there's a lot of context that can change by the country, city, and block where you live that might make being public about it not cool to others and quickly marginalize individuals. Regardless of Wicked and Harry Potter softening the image just a touch.

Gremlins is a favourite Christmas movie. Maybe because the Mogwai are Chinese you can count it as pagan.

Yes! I've always had a soft spot for Gremlins as well. Good call on that, thank you.

 

[Yazata]

Witchy Ways

Watched it last night
On the topic of Holiday movies:
Today it's Sinterklaas in NL. This good Holy man who brings presents and joy is one of the figures that Coca-Cola transformed into Santa Clause. In 2019 a horror movie was made about him. Ashamed to say I haven't watched it myself yet, but maybe it fits in this list:

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