Myquillyn Smith tells us in her book, Welcome Home: A Cozy Minimalist Guide to Decorating and Hosting All Year Round, that Christmas is a holiday and winter is a season. This post is about how I’m welcoming winter, but most of that looks like Christmas right now. I probably won’t be doing these seasonal updates next year since I’m not using the word WELCOME again, so you’ll just have to imagine what the rest of winter will be like.
In my part of the world, winter means cold weather and snow although the weather has been playing with us. We’ve had a few dustings of snow and some days that hit the low 60s. The main holidays we celebrate are Christmas, New Year’s and Valentine’s Day. We have one winter birthday in our house. Winter is the least anticipated season, but Christmas is the most anticipated holiday. So, we welcome winter a little easier on December 21 this year knowing it is also the harbinger of Christmas.
All of our traditions have been turned upside down a bit this year since we live in a new area. Our main activities so far have been decorating our house and Christmas shopping. We have other things planned, but everything is pretty different from previous years. We’re settling in and enjoying the season, though.
FOOD
The three winter holidays have the most food traditions in our family. On Christmas morning, we read the Christmas story while eating homemade cinnamon rolls. We do a Ham for Christmas dinner and my husband makes his mother’s Dutch Apple Pies. I make either our family’s traditional Waldorf Salad or repeat the Cranberry Salad I make at Thanksgiving. During the Christmas season, we take my husband’s Cranberry Orange Cake to potlucks, and we bake Christmas cookies and make hard cinnamon candy. The cookies we make about every year are Raspberry Ribbons and my aunt’s Snickerdoodles. This year, I pulled out an older recipe I hadn’t made for a few years, Festive White Chocolate Cheesecake with Cranberry Orange topping. It was a success.
On New Year’s Day, we eat the traditional Pork and Sauerkraut. Half of our family does not like sauerkraut, so we make one pork roast without it. Valentine’s Day is our special family holiday with just the six of us. We all pitch in to make a fancy meal complete with our best dishes and presentation.
Beef Wellington, Herbed Potato Mash, Roasted Brussel Sprouts 
White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake
CLOTHING
My winter clothes are pretty much the same as my fall clothes. However, when Thanksgiving is over, I put away any very orange or fall patterns and get out the more textured sweaters and suedes. Red is not one of my favorite colors to wear, so I mostly use the reds in my wardrobe during the Christmas season and again at Valentine’s Day. I did save out one patriotic sweater to wear for Pearl Harbor Day as a remembrance. It is too warm for most of the patriotic holidays since they are in the summer or early fall.
MUSIC
I’m not a huge Christmas music fan, especially what is called “Classic Christmas Music.” I did make a Christmas playlist this year that suits my tastes pretty well. I do not listen to Christmas music exclusively even in December. I still use a playlist for my morning devotions and the songs I listen to throughout the year. But I have been playing my playlist in the car or around the house when I want a Christmas mood. Here are a few new songs I heard this year that are on the list: Still My Little Boy, Grown-Up Christmas List and O Holy Night. A few other favorites from my list: Merry Christmas, With Love and We Do Christmas Like We Mean It.
HOME
I am very much a minimalist in decorating, but decorating my front door, coffee table and dining table seasonally is satisfying to me.
What do you do to welcome Christmas and Winter into your life and home?