In present times adherents of some new religious movements (such as Modern Germanic paganism) celebrate Yule independently of the Christian festival.

Scholars have connected the original celebrations of Yule to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, and the heathen Anglo-Saxon Mōdraniht ("Mothers' Night").

The term Yule and cognates are still used in English and the Scandinavian languages as well as in Finnish and Estonian to describe Christmas and other festivals occurring during the winter holiday season.

[9] The French word is first attested in the Anglo-Norman Estoire des Engleis, or "History of the English People", written by Geoffrey Gaimar between 1136 and 1140.

[8] Yule is attested early in the history of the Germanic peoples; in a Gothic language calendar of the 5–6th century CE it appears in the month name fruma jiuleis, and, in the 8th century, the English historian Bede wrote that the Anglo-Saxon calendar included the months geola or giuli corresponding to either modern December or December and January.

A work by the skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir that uses the term is then quoted: "again we have produced Yule-being's feast [mead of poetry], our rulers' eulogy, like a bridge of masonry".

Snorri in Hákonar saga góða describes how the three-day feast began on "Midwinter Night", however this is distinct from the winter solstice, occurring approximately one month later.

[20] In modern Germanic language-speaking areas and some other Northern European countries, yule and its cognates denote the Christmas holiday season.

In addition to yule and yuletide in English,[21] examples include jul in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, jól in Iceland and the Faroe Islands, joulu in Finland, Joelfest in Friesland, Joelfeest in the Netherlands and jõulud in Estonia.

[citation needed] As contemporary pagan religions differ in both origin and practice, these representations of Yule can vary considerably despite the shared name.

[25]Some members of the Church of Satan and other LaVeyan Satanist groups celebrate Yule at the same time as the Christian holiday in a secular manner.