It likely won't work out in DC for this year, but I'm interested in looking at the materials when you have them.
Man, Solstice parties never have any blood offerings like they did in the good old days. We have to make sure that Hades will once again relinquish Persephone and end Demeter's grief, guys!
grumble grumble White Walkers unending winter freeze in your castles
(In seriousness, sounds fun. Unfortunately, I'm too far away from NY for solstice-ing, and too lazy and antisocial to try and put together the critical mass for an event where I live.)
I'll have stuff available for people this weekend which is very rough (designed to be used by someone who I'll provide some explanation for in private conversation). After the actual event I'll have a more polished version with commentary.
If you aren't familiar at all with what the deal is, I recommend reading the ritual sequence from last year.
I also can't hold a Solstice (I live a bit far away from the nearest LW Meetup, and my family has family Christmas plans I've already agreed to), but I am interested in reading about your celebration. It's great to have a secular alternative to the religious tones of the holiday season.
Winter is coming, and with it, the Less Wrong Solstice, a celebration of humanity's progress over the centuries and how our relationship with sun and winter has changed.
There is, of course, the public meetup in NYC. But I've now had two different people, in different regions, discuss with me the possibility of holding local Solstice parties. Currently it's unclear whether either of them are going to happen, but after the second person asked about it I realized I should probably post about it here.
I was already putting together materials that would make it easier for other people to hold their own events, I just hadn't expected to need it for this year. I expect to have them *mostly* finished by the end of this week (this means a pdf of a book of songs, and a powerpoint you can use instead of a songbook that includes scrolling lyrics and helps keep people focused on a central location rather than staring down at the pages in their lap)
It's still a sizeable amount of work to put a Solstice party together. You'll probably want to tailor it for the interests of your own friends. If you're doing something similar to what I'm doing, you'll want:
1) People to prepare tasty dishes for a communal dinner
2) At least one musically skilled person to lead songs, and/or good orator to do readings.
3) Several enthusiastic people who are excited about singing songs, whether or not they have a musical background
4) A bunch of light sources to extinguish and relight over the course of the evening.
We're holding the NY event on the 15th so people who are busy on the actual Solstice (due to family obligations) can come. But if you're doing it with local people, you can probably hold it on the Solstice itself (Friday, December 21), or whenever is convenient for you. (The themes of the night also make for a good New Years party)
Let me know if you'd like access to the materials as they become available.