Sabrina: Oh Ambrose, Aunt Hilda: what a beautiful Christmas tree!
Aunt Zelda: I wish you wouldn't call it, that, Sabrina. It's a Yule tree.
Well, I can die happy now: I've just seen television's first Winter Solstice holiday special.
Courtesy—of course—of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
And believe me, this isn't your mother's Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
Come on, admit it: Sabrina's lots of fun. It's way campy and (unlike those silly Wiccans who want to protest how “inaccurate” it is) doesn't take itself too seriously. In fact, it doesn't take itself seriously at all.
And it did bring us TV's first Winter Solstice holiday special.
So what that it uses the Lore (“GRIE-lah”: ugh) for its own purposes (i.e. to entertain), and not for ours?
So what that the "Yule" special is filled with bad Christmas music?
So what that Harvey is (even for a cowan) the world's most boring boyfriend, and not even that cute?
Where else on TV do you see (and hear) witches joining hands and chanting the Solstice Blessing:
May the Yule Log burn;
may the Wheel turn.
May evil spurn;
may the Sun return.
Down the years, I've heard worse at plenty of Wiccan circles.
Far worse.
So let's hear it for The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. At heart, it's all about the pains (and pleasures) of being different, something every Witch (and Warlock) can understand.
On this Thirteenth Night of Yule, this Feast of Fools, let us join hands and say, together with Sabrina:
Satan bless us, every one.
Sabrina: Merry Christmas, Harvey.
Harvey: M—what do you guys say?
Sabrina: Good Solstice, Harvey.
Harvey: Yeah. [Leaves.]