This is my favorite Winter Solstice poem.  It really speaks to the meaning of the season for our ancestors and for us today.  Check out the Revels.  There are Revels programs in most major cities in the US. 

THE SHORTEST DAY
 Written for the Revels by Susan Cooper in 1997

So the shortest day came,
and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their home with evergreens;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing, Behind us--listen!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends and hope for peace.
 And do so we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!