The Sun is the focus of this rite.  On the day of the Winter Solstice, it makes it's lowest arc in the sky, taking with it the least amount of life-giving daylight  of the year.  This is a polarized day, with it's extreme balancing the fiery intensity of Litha, the Summer Solstice of June.  The ancients all over the world reognized the importance of this day by erecting  temples of worship

Many bygone cultures depicted the Sun as a child of the Earth Mother waiting to be born on this day.   The birth of the Sun Child was celebrated with great joy, as it's energy would again return to the Earth in the form of longer, warmer days suitable for planting life-sustaining food.  Much dancing, chanting, noise-making and merriment coaxed the Sun Child into birth on the Eve of the Solstice, in wich great bonfires were made in symbolism of the sun's great energy and giver of life. 

The green bows are sometimes fashoned into circular wreaths, representing the wheel of the year, or entire trees are decorated with gingerbread, red, yellow and sparkly balls, sun images, and stars.