First of all, you'll want to research your holiday before you create a ritual for it. Read as much lore as you can get your hands on. You'll want to understand what the myth is regarding what the God and Goddess are doing at that point in the year, because that will help you understand that particular spoke on the wheel of the year. The God and the Goddess's life together is very symbolic of what the Earth is doing at the time so it is important to know the symbolism there.

You should find a nice place to do your ritual. You may actually want to do it outside. You also want to find out the traditional time to do the ritual. Most will be after sundown but some of them might be better performed at or around noon or at least when the sun is up, or you can do the rituals at the time of day corresponding to the life stage of the God. Decide if you can do it without being interrupted in the spot you want to do it.

You should find out what the appropriate way to dress is . . . if you're wearing clothes, that is. You might find it very inspiring to dress in clothes of the colors of the holiday. Also, if you wear those clothes all day, it helps you to remember all day that it is a special time.

Find out what foods are traditional. Find out some of the decorations and the traditions and the superstitions. If these appeal to you and you believe in them, engage in these! Not just during the ritual but before and after; remember that Sabbats commemorate a time of year, not just a few hours. Your celebration can be anywhere from those few hours to several days when you're "getting into the spirit." The "Christmas season" lasts much longer than Christmas day, and the Pagan holidays should emulate that.

Look at what other people have done for their rituals. But never copy them. You need to create the bulk of your ritual, unless you are doing it with an established coven, in which case they will show you what to do but you should still understand the meaning of all of it. If you are doing it with a group, try to find out beforehand what will be going on so that you are engaging in a celebration from your heart, not just following the others' motions! And if you are creating it yourself, again, look at other people's rituals: In a generous friend's Book of Shadows; on a Wiccan newsgroup (such as alt.religion.wicca); in a book about the Sabbats (such as Eight Sabbats for Witches by Janet and Stewart Farrar or A Book of Pagan Rituals by Herman Slater); and of course, on other Wicca-and-Witchcraft-related homepages--try my Sabbats page.

Write out what's important to you beforehand. If you think honoring all mothers for their role in birthing children on Yule (which is the time the Mother gives birth to Her baby Sun King), then you should think of a way to give praise to mothers in your ritual. (There is more on symbolic praising and representation at my ritual page.) Find several things that are important to you for the ritual and find ways to express them. Incorporate traditional symbols and practices if you like them (such as scrying on Samhain). It is really a great idea to think up your own words, write them out, and recite them while doing symbolic actions or invoking symbolic presences!

When you do your ritual for a Sabbat, have a LOT of fun. These are JOYOUS occasions and you should not feel like you are doing a duty; you are celebrating life, not just honoring the deities (however you see Them), so you should be having fun. If a formal ritual is TOO formal for you, try just going outside somewhere safe and lying down and contemplating the sky while you give your thanks, or run joyfully in a field or swim at midnight outside. I am writing about ritual here on the assumption that if you want a looser ritual that is more personal then I have no way of telling you how to go about it.

After the "meat" of a ritual (consisting of symbolic manipulations, invocations, and recitations), in some cases you might want to do spells. The Sabbats are fine times for doing magick, so if you are not too exhausted after your ritual and you have magick you want to do you may do so. Find out what sorts of magick are appropriate for the Sabbat you are celebrating and make sure that the moon's phase is working for you.

After the ritual is over, but possibly before you break the circle, you will probably want to have some sort of meal, which is referred to as the Wine and Cakes Ceremony or the Cakes and Ale Ceremony. You can eat something small or a whole smorgasbord of traditional foods. I lean towards the smorgasbord myself; I always bring lots of food into my circle in tupperware containers and eat it after I'm done with the main parts of the ritual. Part of it is giving a "libation" to the present deities, too; you put part of your meal into a libation bowl and later pour or bury the contents outside, as a way to give back to the Earth what it has given you.