If you want your Yule to be a bit closer to then, just observe at a time when the Norse often were more likely to do so: the first full moon, following the firs

If you want your Yule to be a bit closer to then, just observe at a time when the Norse often were more likely to do so: the first full moon, following the first new moon, following the winter solstice. That happens to fall on January 25 this year -- which seems at least closer to the middle of winter as we currently reckon it. As for what the Norse were celebrating, it's a bit lost to history. The word yule itself seems mostly just to mean something like festival. Think George Costanza with a helmet and axe and I think we're good to go.