Free Skagway Tour! Winter Solstice in Skagway

Enjoy your free Skagway tour of Winter Solstice and have a Merry Christmas!

At M&M Tour Brokerage, we love making visitor’s dreams a reality by sending them on an epic excursion into the Alaskan wilderness. However, we don’t have any tours available during the winter months because it’s far better to stay inside and drink spiked egg nog than brave the frigid darkness that we call winter.

However, today is a special day because it is Winter Solstice. A lot of people say Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year but it’s not. Winter Solstice is still 24 hours long, just like any other day. What these well-meaning people are trying to say is that Winter Solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year.

To celebrate this special day, I am going to provide you with a free Skagway tour! Well, it’s a free virtual tour of Winter Solstice in Skagway! What could be better?

Let’s begin your Free Skagway Tour!

First, let’s talk about winter. If you look at your calendar, it says today is the first day of winter. Your calendar is wrong and should be embarrassed. You see, in temperate regions like Skagway, Winter Solstice marks the middle of winter. I know this is true because it’s been cold for like three months and it’s going to be cold for at least three more months.

In meteorology, which is the science of weather, winter begins around the beginning of December. As you can see, winter can be just about anytime you want to be. All I know is that we start gaining daylight tomorrow and I like that. Soon it will be summer and I will be fishing in my canoe with a beer in my hand.

Our next Free Skagway Tour stop – Indigenous Winter Solstice

The native people that lived around Skagway for countless generations were the Tlingits. They were not Christian, so they did not celebrate Christmas. What did the Tlingit people do during the Winter Solstice?

The Tlingit people held a celebration called a Potlatch. Members of different tribes would gather together for a big feast. They sang songs, told stories, shared gifts and watched football. I made that last one up to see if you’re paying attention.

Does any of that sound familiar? Indeed, a Potlatch celebration isn’t too different than any other winter holiday celebration, including Christmas. Pretty neat, eh?

Free Skagway Tour stop #3 – What’s happening in Skagway today?

Nowadays, Skagway people still like to gather together during the holiday season, and Winter Solstice is a very special day. Throughout December, there are countless Yuletide celebrations and events all over town. There’s a Yuletide Ball and a Yuletide Christmas Concert and Santa comes and lights up a tree downtown. It’s just nuts.

What is Yuletide, you ask? It’s a festival traditionally celebrated by Germanic people and gets its name from the Norse God Odin. Original yule celebrations included great feasts, copious amounts of drinking, and a few sacrifices here and there. So, really, not much has changed. There were also some fertility events during the OG Yuletide celebrations so you can bet it was a party.

It’s pretty much a guarantee that Skagwegians will be having all sorts of fun on Winter Solstice. I’m going to a party at my buddy’s house. I have some other friends that are going to bowl. A few more are driving up to Whitehorse to see the new Star Wars movie. As you can see, the options are limitless.

Thanks for joining us on this Free Skagway Tour of Winter Solstice. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, so enjoy your time with friends and family whether celebrating Christmas or an all-night bacchanalian celebration in honor of Odin. You earned it!