Yule or Yuletide ("Yule time") is a winter period and event that was initially celebrated by the historical Germanic peoples and some neighboring peoples as a religious festival, though it was later absorbed into, and equated with, the Christian festival of Christmas (December 25). The earliest references to the event are by way of indigenous month names (lasting between what is now mid-November and early January), whereas the event may have been centered on or around Midwinter (winter solstice). Scholars have connected the celebration to the Wild Hunt, the god Odin, increased supernatural activity, and the pagan Anglo-Saxon Modranicht.

Terms with an etymological equivalent to Yule are used in the Nordic countries for the Christian Christmas (with its religious rites), but also for other holidays of the season. Yule is also used to a lesser extent in English-speaking countries to refer to Christmas. Customs such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem from Yule. The non-religious treat Yule as an entirely secular tradition. A number of Neopagans have introduced their own rites.

Idina Kim Menzel ( /ɪˈdiːnə mɛnˈzɛl/; born Mentzel on May 30, 1971) is an American actress, singer and songwriter.

She rose to prominence for her performance as Maureen Johnson in the Broadway musical Rent, a role which she reprised for the 2005 film adaptation. In 2004 she won the Tony Award for originating the role of Elphaba in the hugely successful Broadway blockbuster Wicked.

Menzel was born in Queens, New York. Her mother, Helene, is a therapist, and her father, Stuart Mentzel, worked as a pajama salesman. Her family is Jewish; her grandparents immigrated from Russia and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Her family lived in East Brunswick, Somerset and Marlboro, New Jersey from when she was in kindergarten to third grade, but she considers herself raised in Syosset, New York, with her younger sister Cara. Idina changed her last name to Menzel to better reflect the pronunciation the Mentzel family had adopted in America. When Menzel was 15 years old, her parents divorced and she began working as a wedding and bar mitzvah singer, a job which she continued throughout her time at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She earned a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree in Drama at NYU prior to being cast in Jonathan Larson's rock musical Rent. She was friends with actor Adam Pascal before they worked together in Rent.