Yule in the Germanic Calendar

Understanding the ancient calendar systems of our ancestors is integral to understanding their practices and beliefs, as well as the timing for the big festivals. Germanic calendars, and the calendars of many other cultures, were lunisolar, meaning the phases of the moon and the solar year were both taken into account. This is different from our modern (Gregorian) calendar, which is based solely on the solar year. The dates for all festivals were determined by this lunisolar calendar system, and this is also true for the Yuletide. The period of Yule lasted over two synodic months, one before the winter solstice and one after, culminating in the High Yule celebrations. Ancient Yule rituals and festivals were to a very large part copied by later Christians, and are still celebrated today in the form of Christmas, which lasts for a period of twenty days in some places in Europe. The Othala rune represents this time well with its association with origin/home, as well as kin. This time is also seen as the beginning of the solar cycle and as such the start of the New Year.

Solstice

Many pagans today assume that Yule and the winter solstice are one and the same; however, this is not supported by any of the sources available to us.
We think it is important to clarify its place in the calendar, and to clarify the calendar itself. The sources vary on the time for the main celebrations of Yule, and it should be noted that most if not all descriptions of Yule were written by foreigners or Christians, though there isn't much of a reason to not believe these sources. 
The Anglo-Saxon chronicler Bede the Venerable wrote that the same night the Christians celebrate the birth of their lord, the pagan Anglo-Saxons celebrated Mōdraniht (Mothers’ Night), which possibly has parallels in the Norse Dísablót and Disting, and centers around the female ancestral spirits or clan mothers, which emphasized the common origin of the community, bringing people together during the darkest time of the year.

Yule

The oldest description of Yule comes from the Byzantine Emperor Constantin Porphygrogenitus, who even celebrated Yule with the Varangians. The ceremony was described in his book De Ceremoniis Aulae Byzantinae as such:

 “On the ninth of the twelve Yule days, the men waited at both entrances to the great hall of the emperor, ready to perform the “Gothic play”. At the left door is the naval admiral with some men and flute players from his ships. Behind him stand two Goths, dressed in fur coats, the hair side turned out. They wear masks. The commander of the bodyguard is waiting at the right entrance with a detachment of his men. As soon as the emperor appears, he orders the master of ceremonies to lead the dancers in, and they then rush into the hall, while they strike the shields they carry with their spears, making a great noise, and they keep shouting, “Jul! Jul!” until they have reached the holy table. There the two units approach from both sides at the same time and form a large double circle. After walking around the Holy Table three times in this manner, both units retreat to their seats, the naval warriors on the right and the land warriors on the left, and those of the two units called the Goths read (sang?) the so-called "Gothic song". This was followed by a long song in honor of the emperor.

Note the "Goths" referred to in the description of the ceremony were really Varangians, Pagan Norsemen who were personal guards of the Byzantine Emperor.

Some more information on Yuletide celebrations can be drawn from the Heimskringla, in particular the Saga of Hákon the Good: Feast days and rituals involved farmers coming with their animals to the temple to sacrifice them and have a big feast in honor of the Gods, who, as we can read in the Prose Edda, were also known as Yule-Beings.
One of the names of Odin, Jólnir, is also associated with the event.

In the Saga of Hákon the Good, we are also informed that the beginning of Yule, or the “slaughter night”, was celebrated on the night of midwinter, which is some time in mid to late January, and lasted for three days.
Hákon moved the festival to what would correspond to the 21st or 22nd of December on our calendar, in order to harmonize it with the date on which Christians celebrated Christmas.

The Golden Boar is a common motif even after christianization. In some European regions, the Golden Boar takes the place of Santa and delivers gifts to the children. As well as boar, the Germanic peoples sacrificed horses and many other kinds of livestock for the feast. The blood of the animals was called sacrificial blood. This blood was put on idols, the people, and all over the temple walls, inside and outside. The meat from the animals was boiled and eaten in the feast, and was blessed by the chieftan over the fire in the center of the temple. 

In any case, we can look at Yuletide as more of a season than one specific date, and within that season, there are certain festivals which are held, the “High Yule” festival being celebrated at midwinter, and the “Mothers’ Night” being celebrated the night of or before the solstice.

This post has hopefully done something to give clarification the calendar and one of its many holy days.