Eleven years ago, when my youngest was 2, I realised that although I used ritual and manifesting exercises in my life daily I tended to do that alone and not with my kids. So I created a new tradition to teach my kids about releasing, clarity, intention and manifesting. 
The first weekend after New Years became our family new year’s celebration. It is a celebration which calls to all of us to release, get clear, focused and start a fresh.
As the skies start to darken in the late afternoon a feast is prepared and put on to gently burble away. Whilst it cooks we all gather in the living room with pieces of blank paper and pencils. Candles are lit, calming music is playing and the space is set. We each snuggle up into our corner and write (for the little ones that aren’t at that place yet, they draw).
What do we write?
Whatever we want to release personally, within a family structure, within our community and globally; some of us scribble away like mad fiends, others have less to write. But it’s all about letting go of habits, beliefs, behaviours, thoughts; ways of being that no longer serve.
We don’t share these things, these are deep and dark and private. It’s interesting to see how people fold their lists or what they turn them into when they are finished; everything from paper aeroplanes to pom-pom’s, to flowers. When everyone is done we don our coats and boots and go outside into the snow and the dark and set those gorgeous lists on fire. As the paper ignites the sparks get whipped up into the air, taking with it any residue or baggage and gently blowing it away.
The light and the warmth of the house beckon and when everything is burned to a crisp and released we all scurry inside and peel off our layers. The music changes and there are large stars cut out of Bristol Board. There are pens, crayons, glitter, shiny things, paints – you name it, all waiting to be used and to bedeck a star. Then whether it is with words, pictures or phrases you take the time to decorate your star as to what you would like to create/be/manifest/do in the upcoming year. It’s so fun to see what comes out for each person.
The intentions are set, the desires are launched like massive rockets and laughter abounds.
When the stars are finished we share them, we don’t need to explain them, just share. There are no questions; there is no judgement, after all each of these are personal. Then when the tidy up is completed and glitter has been wiped away we all sit around a gorgeously laid table and share in a wonderful feast and the stars get placed on the kitchen wall so that every day we can read them, look at them and think – YES!
We have carried on with this tradition now for 11 years, and some of the stars have become more complex and some have become simpler. Some years the decorating of them seems to take hours and other years it is more a case of pouring out the yearnings, desires, intentions and goals in written words all over the star.
This year we did our stars on the weekend and one of the boys asked if I kept the ones from the prior year. I have kept them all. So I went and dug through a box and hauled them all out, the kids were amazed to find that a lot of their wishes, visions and desires from a year or so ago had all happened. They had created and manifested the intentions and wishes they had written on their stars.
It made me laugh and think of the song that Jiminy Cricket sang to Pinocchio – When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, anything your heart desires will come to you. When you wish upon a star your dreams come true.
