Wintering Well

a plan for these dark months

Yesterday started winter in my calendar.¹ Of these darker, colder months,² December is the easiest to me. It’s the lead up to Christmas, the twinkly lights, the holiday cheer, the ceaselessness of school and church activities. It’s not until the middle of January that I start to think winter might actually last forever.

I’ve gotten better at winter over the past few years. I decided that I would stop being annoyed that it was not summer and instead develop different rhythms for these months. I light candles at dinner. My goal this year is to go to bed earlier, especially in January.³ I plan winter fun so that there are things to look forward to. Last year, I wrote about it, but not until the end of February which isn’t super helpful for anyone else thinking about these next three months. This year, consider this a prompt to prepare your own winter survival kit if you need one. Buy a snuggly lounge set. Put candles on your table and light them once it’s dark. Start drinking tea in the afternoon. Then, get out your calendar and plan some winter fun.⁴ Here is a list of ideas to get you started. Important reminder: for this to work, you can’t pick all of them. Compile a plan that is reasonable based on your actual life, not a dream life.

• Plan a drinks + charcuterie night with friends⁵

• Go hiking ( or some other appropriate outdoor activity)

• Make a themed dinner and watch a movie

• Visit a kid’s museum⁶

• Go to a regular museum

• Get outside as much as you can

• Assemble a stack of delightful books from the library⁷

• Make up your own project #personalgradschool style:

  • learn something on Masterclass

  • watch YouTube videos

  • fill up a sketchbook

  • start learning a foreign language

  • learn to make bread

  • take a BibleProject class

  • read this fantasy series⁸

• Visit a nursing home

• Volunteer somewhere in your town

• Get in hibernation mode: cozy blankets, loungewear, candles, twinkle lights, etc

• Host a Galentine’s Day brunch

• Trade off babysitting with friends so that you can get (and help provide) a date

• Go on a trip⁹

• Be a tourist in your hometown (or explore a town two hours away)

• Work a weekly puzzle

• Write some poetry and print it in a book

• Start a book club¹⁰

• Move your body: use YouTube

• Do ArtHub for Kids with your kids or someone else’s kid

• Cheer on a basketball team (pick one if you don’t have one)

• Schedule a weekly FaceTime call with a friend who lives far away

• Cook a new meal every week

If you struggle with winter, a plan of some sort will help at least a little. Kristen LaValley does an entire wintering series if you’d like ongoing support. I’d love to hear all of your wintering ideas. Share them in the comments!

1. December, January, February.

2. I’m so glad to live somewhere where spring does start in March.

3. It’s all I wanted last year but I still had homework to do then.

4. I would suggest planning actual events with other people and winter activities that you do alone as part of your near-daily rhythm.

5. Make this something you do every other week. Combine it with the book club. Get to know some new people this way. There are so many options. What works for you?

6. If you don’t have kids, take a friend’s kid. Kids need other adults too! And it will be good for you.

7. I personally plan to read this while we’re on Christmas vacation.

8. This book is huge but it is everything she wrote related to this world. I loved it. It’s not a book you can stick in your bag and take with you though.

9. Obviously if it’s financially possible. Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s not.

10. One book a month for three months is so doable. If you want fiction, what about this, this, and this? Or if you’re interested in theology, what about this, this, and this? Or a mix of biography/essay— try this, this, and this. I could do this all day.