Winter Light Faire

Yesterday was my very favorite festival of the entire year, the Winter Light Faire at our Waldorf school. The whole community gathers and creates the most beautiful festival with crafts, performances, delicious food and treats, storytelling, beeswax candle dipping, wreath making, hot cider, gnomes, faeries, shopping for local handcrafted creations, games, and my very favorite, the Crystal Cookie Cave, but more about that in a minute. When my children were very little, and we first attended this magical festival, I fell hopelessly in love with the school. I knew if we could bring a little more of what was happening here into our lives, we would be on the right track, and thus began our journey into Waldorf education.

It’s amazing to see the entire school transformed into a winter wonderland with garlands of greenery, twinkling lights, lanterns, giant sculptures of winter beings draped in icy silks, the sounds of beautiful music everywhere and the fragrant smell of hot beeswax filling our noses. Children run about gleefully and the community buzzes with holiday cheer. Folks from all around town show up to make it a very busy, lively event indeed.

I was so busy making my way around with the kids, visiting with everyone, and lending a hand at volunteering that I didn’t quite capture all that I wanted to in photographs, but I did my best, and here are a few highlights.

Wish Upon a Star: Here we found the wishing well of Odin (a God of Norse mythology), where children were led along a path of sparkling, glittery stars on the ground to a cave all draped in silks with glowing lanterns. They threw a star into the well and made a wish. Then there were stations to decorate a wooden star ornament with glitter and beads, and hammer out designs in a copper candle holder on a small branch round.

From here, they could go up to the fragrant beeswax candle dipping room and dip a pair of candles to burn in their holder on long winter’s nights.

Wreath Making: This booth is always a favorite. Piles and piles of holly, spruce, cedar, fir, and rosemary trimmings surround tables with floral wire, ribbons and other adornments where children can make a wreath to give as a gift or brighten their front door. This year some parents made beautiful willow wreath bases to work with, and I saw some really amazing wreath creations heading home with folks.  We made an enormous one to decorate our front porch!

Lattke Cafe and Dreidel Room: Here we get to experience a little taste of Hannukah with delicious, crispy lattkes, a lovely dining area all draped in white and blue silks, and a very fun dreidel game for children young and old to play. Often there are live musical performances given here throughout the day.

For the wonderful, crispy potato lattkes there is a long table where the sixth graders add scoops of applesauce and dollops of sour cream to your plate!

The lights of the Menorah.

Artful sculptures of winter faeries.

A bubbling frosty cauldron of snowflakes.

The Crystal Cookie Cave: Here, my friends, is the gem of the whole faire (in my humble opinion.) You walk in the door to a small cave-like hallway draped in silks with little lights twinkling behind it, where a guide plays a little tune on a small harp and softly says:

Inside this darkened cave you’ll find

Cookies of the rarest kind

The gnomes themselves have baked all night

And hid them in the crystals bright

So go inside without a peep

Because the gnomes are all asleep.

Then you walk around the corner into the most magical, amazing little cave you could ever imagine. Little lights twinkle everywhere. 

Crystals and geodes lay scattered all about, illuminated in the flickering glow.

But the very best part, is all of the cookies tucked around everywhere for you to find in this quiet, mysterious cave! There are sugar cookies, frosted cookies, chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, jam-filled cookies, gluten-free cookies, and all kinds, shapes and sizes imaginable to choose one from. It really feels like the gnomes are all around, hiding in the dark corners fast asleep after their long night of baking.

You really can’t visit the Crystal Cookie Cave just once.

There are so many other wonders I didn’t even catch a snapshot of this year. There’s the Little People’s Market where kids go in with a helper and do some shopping for second-hand treasures with their tickets. Wrapping helpers give them a hand and send them on their way with secret gifts for mom, dad, siblings, grandparents…and they are so very proud to give them. There’s the Russian Tea Room with tables of delectable morsels, both savory and sweet where the older students seat and wait on you like a real cafe. Live music performances are ongoing, and it’s a great place to rest your feet and chat with friends. The school store, The Golden Goose, expands out into the lobby of the early childhood building in a holiday wonderland of wooden toys, Waldorf dolls, art supplies, beeswax crayons, lovely books, etc. There is also Granny’s Closet, where the school handwork teachers sell their handcrafted items. Kindergarten rooms are transformed into puppet theatres where the teachers put on some beautiful puppet show performances. In the great hall there is a cafe with soups and pasta, and a bakery booth with all kinds of yummy treats. Here you can participate in cakewalks throughout the day (my son seems to win one every year!) and this is also the location of the main stage where local musicians sing, magicians perform, and the local Youth Ballet puts on a condensed version of the Nutcracker. This year, my favorite addition was a hot cider booth and a campfire with straw bale seating by the wreath-making booth. With all the wonderful experiences to take in, it’s easy to find that the day has slipped by all too quickly, and we must wait a whole year to wander through the Crystal Cookie Cave once again.