Your choice of holidays to celebrate is very personal: there's too much cultural enforcement and rigidity with some; the liturgical calendar of the church has a long reach. Some Wiccans and Pagans seem to have inherited this tendency, being solidly rooted in a fixed, rarely changing calendar of festivals and seasons which, while instructive about the true pagan origins of many Xian "holidays", gets them stuck in a repetitive rut.

In my "craft" I give pre-eminence to the dark phases of the Moon, and the new moon days in particular as the times for reflection and ritual. In nature, nocturnal life is at least as energetic as day life. The darkness is the shroud in which the true mysteries of existence are to be found; fear (or more specifically harnessing the sensation of fear and channeling into personal energy) and desire motivate the search to penetrate the veil and confront whatever you find there. The more you peer into the black, the more you see within yourself, the more of yourself blends with the night, leading to greater awareness. That's why I give the symbolic importance to these periods of celestial darkness as opportunities to learn, to discover and to grow through the ritual and communing experience.

I don't necessarily give much significance to my birthday; though I don't mind if others do:). My "quest" or "being" birthday is the new moon closest to the December winter solstice, which is the closest we get to maximum darkness for the longest period in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the "bath of night" when I can reach into a symbolic and real maximum darkness and, if I've prepared myself properly; I reach into the greatest of inspirations hidden in the shadow veil.

Yule I regard not as a celebration of the birth of a Xian myth ("Xmas" being a stolen holiday to begin with) but a celebration of life, coming with the winter solstice as a kind of annual rebirth of living and growing: the annual celebration of life is an expression of my personal commitment to continue, and indulging just for fun; no guilt, just pleasure, to be delighted in for its own sake.

The June summer solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere: the timing reverses in the Southern Hemisphere) by contrast is a time of struggle, when the darkness symbolically fights for its few hours of night, and holds out against the blinding, burning light. Blinded by light, it is more difficult to peer into darkness and find meaning, so this solstice is a culmination or "celebration" of personal victory in that struggle, as well as a reminder that the struggle continues, and that I will perceiver no matter what comes my way. The other new moon periods between reinforce that; growing with the night as the darkness becomes longer, maintaining the struggle as the night grows shorter.

Important to keeping these fresh is to continually re-invent the ritual, to re-build and re-think, so that, like life, it grows and never becomes stale. More significantly, as it changes with you, then it evolves with you.

I spent some time in the Wiccan tradition before going beyond it, so I still give some regard to Beltane and Samhain as times for reflection and growth; I look at Samhain in association with the Day of the Dead as a point of transcendence between the flesh and the spirit; however you choose to define that power.

In terms of choosing your sabbats or "celebration days"; I largely hold to whatever serves you according to what you wish to achieve with your life and "quest" be it philosophical, emotional, material, spiritual etc. What you take away from it is very much about what you want to put into it.