Happy Holidays from ANS!

By Alex Miller

As 2025 draws to a close, people the world over are celebrating holidays, from Christmas to Hannukah, Kwanza to Yule, most focused in one way or another on the Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere.  As the time of greatest darkness, but heralding the gradual return of the light, the Winter Solstice represents hope and renewal, and in the Western world, one last blowout party to ring out the old and usher in the new.  ANS offers its compliments to its readers, whatever holiday they honor, and offers some advice for Christmas celebrants, as to the tone and tenor of the festival ahead.

You might expect Santa Claus, as the chief exemplar of the secular arm of Christmas, to feature prominently for the day, and so he does, in the form of asteroid Santa (7 Capricorn), the Italian feminine form of “saint,” taking center stage conjoined the spotlighting Sun (4 Capricorn).  But he’s not alone there!  The grandiose gift-giver also pairs with Venus (1 Capricorn) and Mars (also 7 Capricorn), so the day is one of high energy (Mars), perhaps sprinkled with some disagreements at the festive board (also Mars), but the accent is on loved ones and shared values (both Venus).

If you find things getting tense, music has charms to soothe the savage breast, and with asteroid Carol (5 Libra) squared (90 degrees) the solar stellium, a good old-fashioned holiday singalong might be just the ticket to bring down the temperature in the room.  Regardless, music fills the air!

If you’re looking for last-minute gift ideas, Santa conjunct Venus suggests arts & crafts, fashion, cosmetics & jewelry; teamed with Mars, athletic gear or sports equipment is favored, and perhaps knives or other cutlery for the chef-minded on your list.  Venus here also reminds us that cash is always welcome, when all else fails.

The urge to splurge is always strong at this time of year, but with Venus conjunct the Sun, keep an eye to the budget as well.  And asteroid Yule (9 Aquarius) semisquare (45 degrees) Saturn (25 Pisces), arbiter of scarcity and dearth, suggests some belt-tightening is in order.  Neptune (29 Pisces) is here, too, lending that spiritual flavor to the day, but also counseling to beware of fraud – if that cut-rate deal looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Mercury (19 Sagittarius), ruling weather and travel, is squared Saturn and Neptune, so expect some delays (Saturn) and possibly best-laid plans dissolving (Neptune) in the face of unexpected difficulties (Saturn again).  “Be prepared” is Saturn’s watchword, so have a backup plan in place, just in case.

The type of travel issues we can expect in the northern hemisphere are neatly summarized by Mercury’s conjunction with asteroid Frostia (12 Sagittarius) and opposition to asteroids Schneeweis (14 Gemini, German for “white snow”) and Snowdonia (18 Gemini) – cold (Frostia) and snowy (Schneeweis and Snowdonia) conditions could prevail.  Schneeweis also trine (120 degrees) Yule says there’s a better-than-equal chance of experiencing that classic “White Christmas” in 2025. 

Wherever you are, and whatever you celebrate, ANS wishes you a joyous holiday season and a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

[If you’d like to read more about asteroid Santa and the origins of the modern Christmas, check out “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Asteroid.“

Also in holiday vein, “What the Dickens?” chronicles asteroid Dickens in the life of Charles Dickens, author of “A Christmas Carol.”]

Sources: chart data from serennu.com

Title Image Credit: drawn by ChatGPT