I don’t know what it’s like in the winter where you live, but here in West Virginia, it is grey and wet a lot of the time. I can handle it during the holiday season because I’m distracted by all the twinkly lights, baking, and special music. Once I take down Christmas my home feels a tiny bit barren. I miss the cozy atmosphere the holiday season brings. This year, I am determined to keep more of that special cozy feeling that surrounds the holiday. Here are a few ways I’m going to try doing that.
I’m going to start by catering to ALL my senses.
Paying attention to the way things LOOK around your house is probably the fastest way to implement a cozy atmosphere; are things picked up and organized? Do I like the way my areas are arranged? Is there something that irritates me each time I look at it that I can do something about? Those are fairly obvious things that make a difference when it comes to making your home cozy. But when I think about the atmosphere of the holidays so much of it also involves smell, feel, sound, taste.
Smell: So much baking happens around the holidays but life is picking up speed at my house again so I don’t have a lot of extra time to whip up lots of goodies, but I can easily toss together a simmer pot and set it on my stove when I’m in an afternoon slump. If even that’s too much, I can pull out my essential oil diffuser and search for a great diffuser recipe on Pinterest. Orange is one of my favorite scents around the house. It smells fresh and clean and it also helps wake me up when all I really want is a nap.
Taste: I may not have time to whip up a lot of extra treats after the holidays, but I will still be cooking dinner. When it’s nasty outdoors I purposely plan “comfort foods” that are a little more heavy and rich like this Chicken Pot Pie from the Love Welcome Serve Cookbook, a quick and hearty taco soup (recipe pictured below), or even just opening a can of our favorite chili. Then I add in a light and fluffy carb, sometimes from scratch but more often something like Jiffy cornbread mix (I doctor it up a bit by adding an extra egg, 2 TBSP of melted butter, and 1 TBSP of sugar to the box mix), a can of Pillsbury biscuits or (our favorite) crescent rolls. Mmmmmm, I feel warmed up and cozy just thinking about it.
Sound: There are people home with me all day long so my house leans more toward the noisy side than it does the peaceful and cozy side so I rarely add music into the chaos, but one thing I have enjoyed is playing soft music while I cook or clean in the kitchen. Pandora is my online music go-to and one of my favorite channels is the French Cooking Channel. I also love The Getty’s channel when I’m looking for Christian music. I don my favorite apron, pour a cup of hot tea, and turn the music up just enough that I can hum along over the sound of the slicing, chopping, pouring, and bubbling. It changes my whole mood when I’m cooking dinner!
I’m not as familiar with Spotify, but BooMama205 and TheLazyGenius have made playlists in the past and talked about them on their Instagram accounts. Of course, you don’t have to go with an already prepared playlist; make your own playlist filled with music that lightens your mood! Cooking and cleaning aren’t the only times to play music, during dinner background music makes for a wonderful atmosphere, and while you’re soaking in the tub it’s delightful!
Feel: When it’s blustery and cold outside, I want all the soft, squishy, fluffy things tucked in around me. Cozy jogger pants, oversize sweaters, thick socks and my favorite slippers, piles of blankets, and pillows I can burrow into with a cup of hot tea, cocoa, or coffee depending on my mood. I love to end an evening curled up on the couch under a warm blanket, a hot beverage, and a favorite movie. A folded stack of blankets or a pile of pillows tucked into a shelf or basket just calls out for friends and family to settle in and linger a little longer under their warmth.
The atmosphere of all those things put together can really go a long way to keeping the winter greys outside and bringing the warm and cozy inside. The only thing that could raise the bar just a little?
Twinkle lights and candles.
I can’t even think of what in life is not made a little more cheerful because of a strand of fairy lights or a lit candle. A candle by your bathroom sink as you brush your teeth before bed, twinkle lights wound up carelessly in a jar on your nightstand, battery-powered candles strewn down the center of your dinner table, white Christmas lights dangling above your kitchen sink. Dim your lights friends, and enjoy a winter evening by twinkle lights and candles.
But winter cozy isn’t just about the physical parts of your home. We want you to find ways to make your everyday LIFE cozy.
- Take a bubble bath. Place a few candles (or jars with fairy lights) around the room. Give your skin some extra TLC and hydration with a good sugar scrub. Saturate your hair in a good hair mask and while it soaks in put your feet up and read a few chapters of a book.
- Drop off a basket of baked goodies for a friend. Include the ingredients for their own simmer pot in a cellophane bag tied with ribbon.
- Plan a coffee date at your favorite local coffee shop (all by yourself if that’s what recharges you, with a friend, with your kiddos, or with your spouse) or if your weather is more temperate, fill a thermos, grab a blanket, pick up some treats form your local bakery and head out on a picnic at a park.
- Put together a puzzle at home. Turn on your fireplace (or put one on TV), pour your favorite drink, and have a family puzzle night. Order-in your favorite pizza and you won’t even have to cook dinner.
- Date-Night at home. Put your kids to bed early if you have them (or just send them to their rooms early if they’re older) and enjoy a quiet candle-lit dinner with your spouse. Maybe even throw a blanket on the floor and have a little living room picnic. Think through all the senses we talked about above and how you might incorporate some of those into your home-date. Who knows what kind of cozy it might lead to!
- Eat on that china you usually save for special occasions. Let’s turn more regular days into reasons to use our favorite dishes. Spaghetti and french bread taste even better on china than it does on disposable. (Unless you’re just too exhausted for dishes, then spaghetti on disposable is heavenly!)
- Go to the library and check out the maximum number of books you’re allowed. Get a variety, cookbooks, home decor, non-fiction, fiction, comic books, gardening books, whatever strikes you fancy. Plan a whole day and spend all of it cuddled up pouring over these borrowed treasures. If you’re the playful type, build a fort out of your couch cushions, bring in those battery-operated candles, all your piles of pillows and blankets and do your reading in there! Invite a friend to join you!
What do you think? Will you try some of these things at your house to stave off the winter blues? We‘d love to see pictures if you do. Share them on Instagram and tag @thesweetteasisters
XOXO
Doe