Homemaking Through the Dark Months (18 Cozy Rituals for Winter)

Inside: little ways to make time at home feel restful and cozy, not drab and depressing. Written by a true winter-hater ❤️.

It’s dark, it’s cold, the light is gray. You’re inside all the time, but even worse is being outside. The days are short, nothing’s ready in the garden, and everything fun is shut down. There is not a lot to love about winter, for me at least. But that doesn’t mean we need to suffer through the cold, dark months. We can learn to love them… or at least parts of them—just a little.

1. Candles at dusk

Dusk in wintertime is one of the worst times of day and year for me, all combined. I get agitated, blue, cranky. When something like that predictably rolls around in your life, the best thing to do is a ritual that counteracts it, something you like. For me, the best thing is lighting candles. As soon as that gloomy sun-lowering feeling settles over the house, I light a bunch.

2. Open curtains at sunrise

And just like we need to chase away the gloom, we need to capture all of the sun. As soon as that little orange sun peeks over the horizon, open all of your curtains. Capture every little bit of sunshine that you can. If you can set up mirrors to reflect it, all the better.

3. Start a weekly soup night

Of course, every season has some good things about it, and for winter, it’s the food. Soup belongs with cold weather. The best way to make sure that this happens is to have a weekly soup night. Pick a day of the week that you want to be home, stirring, chopping, letting things bubble away, and make it your soup night. Get your favorites, try new recipes, rotate ones in and out as they earn their place or don’t, but just make it into a ritual. It’s one of those things that you might actually enjoy.

4. Make tea in the afternoon with a real kettle

Along with the food ritual theme comes the idea of an afternoon tea, but instead of weekly, I encourage you to do this one every single day. A little bit after lunchtime, before the gloomy dusk, have a little break. You, any kids who are home with you, and a pot of tea. If you have a real kettle, it makes it so much cozier. The whistling, the pouring, it’s all part of that wintertime experience.

5. Start a baking day

We have soup, we have tea, and now we need something baked to go with it. A weekly baking day is a great practice in general if you want to start adding homemade foods to your diet, but in winter it’s not just practical; it’s good for the soul. Every week of the year, I bake two loaves of bread, but in winter I add more cookies, cakes, scones, muffins, and quick breads. These are the things that we look forward to all summer long. Don’t forget to enjoy them now that the time is here.

6. Set up a practical entryway

A beautiful foyer is all well and good, but Winter demands practicality. There’s a lot of stuff you need, and you really need a good place to put it. Think about what works best for you. You can divide by person and give everyone a basket, or if people tend to share and steal from each other, have a basket for gloves, a basket for hats, a basket for scarves, etc. Make sure you have lots of big hooks with plenty of space around them. If you don’t have the wall space for this, get a coat tree. Don’t forget a spot for the dog’s leash and a place to hang dirty or wet outerwear as it dries.

Having something nice and practical set up like this can make all the difference between you actually getting outside every day and it feeling like too much work to go in and out of the house. Part of the secret to making it through winter is getting outside as much as possible. So set yourself up for success.

7. Air out the house ten minutes a day

Just like you need fresh air, so does the house. I know everyone loves something tightly insulated and efficient, but your house needs to breathe. If it’s above freezing when you wake up or even somewhat close to it, I really encourage you to crack your windows in every room (turn off the heat while you do this!). Shut your bedroom doors and open those windows a little bit bigger.

Stale air out, fresh air in. Besides that, it gives you something to do as the sun’s coming up, bustling about opening the curtains, waking up the house and yourself. It’s a nice routine. You might like it and carry it through spring.

8. Line-dry your towels and sheets

Winter might not be warm, but it is breezy and quite often sunny. Any day that you can, get outside. Again, more fresh air for you. Hang up those towels and sheets. It is usually way too cold in the morning for me to worry about hanging up T-shirts and socks, but big things like this do feel worth the effort. When you bring them inside, they’ll have that fresh crisp outdoor fragrance.

9. Do a family room reset in the afternoon

If you stay home and your family is out all day, it’s always nice to have the house looking pretty.  But ESPECIALLY in winter, when they are in the wind and cold.  So spend a few minutes getting the family room ready for the family! In the early afternoon, I typically clean out the morning’s fire, start a fresh one, and do a super-quick tidy: fold blankets, straighten pillows, and do a 30-second dust if needed. Just make everything look ready for the evening.

For the best results, make sure you have your afternoon tea right after this with a cookie.

10. Have something growing inside

Nothing is as cheerful as something alive inside your house. If you already have houseplants, this is all taken care of. If you don’t, now is a great time to start. Even something really simple like a fern in your bathroom can make a big difference. If it feels like just one more thing to take care of, assign a young child the job of watering it. A great way to teach responsibility, and they’ll probably enjoy watching it grow.

11. Make Everyone a Winter Basket

This is less work than it sounds like. If you have a big basket or even a big soft tote bag for each person in the family, that’s all you need.

I like to stock just a few books that they’ll like and rotate them out frequently so it always feels like a little surprise for them. That way, when they’re bored and lounging about and tempted to reach for their phones, they might go and check and see what’s inside.

For one of my children, I’ll put paint pens. For another one, always a new book, and for my youngest, typically stickers. It doesn’t have to be expensive, and it doesn’t have to be anything new. Just curated little things from around your house, presented differently, can help them beat the winter doldrums.

12. Add Thicker Fabrics Bit by Bit

Everyone logically understands that in winter we need thicker blankets, not exactly earth-shattering. But one thing to remember is that fall and then eventually winter come in waves. There is that first chilly evening where you need a slightly thicker cover. Then come those mornings where the chill lasts until lunch, and you want blankets out in the living room too. Then comes real winter, when we need things like hot water bottles, electric blankets if we have them, quilts in the living room, down comforters on our beds, and, for those of us who live in drafty houses, heavier curtains on the windows.

The trick is to add these bit by bit so winter doesn’t feel like a terrible occurrence that rolled in all at once. It reminds you that it comes bit by bit. The darkest and coldest part is short, and right around the corner is the time when that down comforter gets packed away and that light blanket is all you need.

13. Create a “Bright Corner”

Not everyone is blessed with a house where the main living spaces get lots of sun all day, but almost everyone has at least one sunny corner they can gravitate toward. If yours is in a less-used spot, like a guest room or a formal living space, I highly encourage you to make it a more frequently used spot. Put a chair in there, a basket of books, a TV if you have to. Just get your little self into the sun whenever you can for as long as you can.

14. Add (literal) warmth to your mornings

One of the hardest things about Winter is early morning. It’s really cold. It’s really dark, and you just might be really tired. The easiest way to handle this is to make yourself warm. I like to sleep with a long-underwear top and bottom, then put another layer on when I get dressed, so I don’t have to be in my freezing-cold bathroom. You might have a more comfortable heating situation, but either way, waking up and facing the cold, hard morning is difficult. Slippers, warm drinks, maybe a mug slightly warmed up in the oven or being filled with hot water before you pour your coffee in. All of these are little treats that make the mornings just a bit easier.

15. Set up a bird feeder

Anything that can get you facing outward in a season that naturally makes you want to hibernate will cheer you up just a bit. And if you don’t like being outside, you can at least look outside. The best way to do that is with a bird feeder.

A few minutes of research will tell you what birds are most prevalent in your area and what their favorite food is. If you don’t feel like looking this up, just put out sunflower hearts. Everything loves them, and they don’t make a mess.

16. Set a twice-monthly winter coffee date with a friend

Once a week feels like too much, doesn’t it, and once a month isn’t enough. Twice a month is just right. Every other Tuesday, a close friend and I meet for coffee in our cute little historic downtown. We pay too much. It’s inconvenient. It takes away time I could be productive at home, but it’s something I wouldn’t want to give up. November through February, it’s a standing appointment.

17. Make a January treat calendar

You know how you come across dessert recipes in cookbooks or magazines, or even you read about them in a novel and you think, “Oh, that sounds so good”? Things you’d never really make in everyday life, like cheesecake bars or cupcakes filled with lemon curd or really special occasion treats. Well, I encourage you to pick out 4-5 and make one of them a week in January. You can freeze any extras if you don’t feel like having a treat fest all month long.  But having a treat to look forward to is so nice.

18. Keep Dreaming

Of course, treats, fires, and candles are all well and good, but the best thing about winter is spring. Never forget how much better every other season feels once you’ve endured January. So keep looking forward: planning your garden, planning your vacation, thinking about your flower beds, and remembering that longer days are right around the corner