Don’t miss the 32nd annual Festival of Lights to be presented virtually on Sunday. Christmas is a time for feasting, for gifts, for merrymaking, and for reverent reflection. But it is also a time when strange beings are about: elves and ghosts and spirits both helpful and dangerous.

Many eerie and wondrous traditions are associated with midwinter and its holidays: Yule, Saturnalia, Christmas, Hogmanay. As Ebenezer Scrooge found out, this is a good time for a ghostly visitation or two to help us see what is truly important and to make us into better versions of ourselves. Some of these spooky visitors are unfamiliar to many of us, like the Greek Kallikantzaroi. All remind us that the world is a stranger place than we think and a more wonderful one.

This year’s Festival of Lights celebrates traditions from many parts of Europe, where pagan beliefs were incorporated into Christian stories and rituals. Our theme is Christmas Ghosts and Midwinter Spirits—plural. As the afternoon darkens, and we celebrate with readings and songs, we will make our way from the Nordic countries to Greece and Italy and finally to London, where the most famous of those Christmas spirits were invented by Unitarian writer Charles Dickens.

Members and friends will be reading live from a variety of sources, interspersed with recorded holiday music.

Zoom Link: PUUF on Sundays

Meeting ID: 882 1927 3095

Passcode: 692126