By TMoM Team Member Anna Keller
I found myself feeling a little frantic in mid-December, realizing that I wouldn’t have time to check everything off the list before Christmas arrived. Sure, we got the tree decorated, but what about cozy time by the fire sipping homemade hot cocoa? Yes, we were able to enjoy the lights around town, but making Christmas cookies just didn’t happen this year.
It makes sense, of course. The window between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a pretty small one, especially when you consider that things like school and work continue and then all the special festive stuff has to fit in between regular life. It started making me sad to realize just how much we wouldn’t enjoy in December.
But then I reminded myself to zoom out a bit. After all, the holiday season is just a small part of winter. There’s SO much time left to squeeze in all the coziness my heart desires AFTER the decorations have come down and the flurry of Christmas has disappeared.
And making that mental shift was hugely helpful for me. (Maybe it is for you, too?)
With that in mind, here are some things that come to mind as fun winter activities for us to enjoy as a family (without the Christmas pressure fueling the timeline). That said, my goal with this list is not to make it full of things we HAVE to do, but instead to include ideas of things that would be great activity options. (My MAIN hope is that we get lots of time to be together, to be still, and to lean into this cold season by keeping things cozy, warm, and restful.)
- Lots of couch snuggles by the fire
- Collect warm items for the homeless
- Bake and decorate cookies
- Make homemade hot chocolate
- Decorate pinecones or rocks
- Have family game nights
- Read winter-themed books
- Take a nature walk
- Go ice skating
And the interesting thing, too, is that my overall mindset around January feels different this year. I’ve been talking to friends who feel similarly, too. Instead of the typical goal-setting, hard reset, new habit fueled time that the New Year can be, many of us are feeling led by nature to retreat a bit, and to resist the urge to go big right now and instead give in to the intuitive pull for quiet and rest and rejuvenation.
All of it seems to work together, doesn’t it? I feel like the more I’m able to give winter the respect it deserves, the more it’s giving back to me. Instead of pushing against the dark and the cold, I’m letting those things lead the way.
There’s lots more coziness ahead. There is so much more winter fun still to be had. I hope this will be exactly the season we need it to be this year.
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