Hi besties, it’s officially winter! I both love and hate winter, if I’m being completely honest — I love all the seasons, but with winter comes the dark early nights (it should not be getting dark outside at 4:30 pm) which wreaks absolute havoc on my mental health. Because of that, I make sure to focus on things that bring me a lot of comfort, so that’s the theme for the winter edition of My Favorite Things blog post!
Get cozy, and let’s talk about some of my favorite things to do during the winter!
Something about winter screams classics to me. I don’t really know what it is, but winter rolls around and I’m like “It’s time to reread some classics!” and of course, I always love rereading two of my favorites.
I typically like to start a Little Women reread on Christmas; I mean, it just makes sense considering the first line of the book is “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” and for me, Little Women is perfect for the winter because when I think of winter I think of comfort and home, and there’s no story more comforting to me and no book that feels more like home than Little Women.
While Emma is my favorite Jane Austen novel, the novel of hers that brings me the most comfort is Pride and Prejudice. The Bennet family is wild and crazy and just so much all the time, but reading about them brings me so much comfort and reading about Elizabeth and Darcy in the winter months especially is such a lovely experience.
I’m starting to realize that with movies and tv I just watch whatever whenever I want — meaning yes, sometimes I’m watching Christmas movies in the summer and Halloween movies in the middle of the winter. But there are a few movies that scream winter to me (again, for the comfort reasons)
If there’s one thing you need to know about me, it’s that the film Anastasia changed my life when I was 4-years-old. And I mean that completely seriously. I was absolutely mesmerized watching that film for the first time; it was the first movie I ever wished I could transport myself into — specifically the Once Upon a December scene. I would watch the movie day and night, and it just brings back so many wonderful memories from my childhood and in my opinion it still has some of the most beautiful animation I have ever seen.
Okay, Little Women 2019 also could’ve gone in the fall edition of this post, and really, it could go in every seasonal post I do here because to me, Little Women is a watch always, but again, for the pure comfort reason, winter is probably when I watch it the most. I also saw it for the first time in December, so I do associate it/some of my memories of it with the winter.
As I mentioned in the fall version of this post, music is the thing that I really tend to associate with seasons. Either the music makes me feel the same way the season makes me feel or I have specific memories of the season associated with a specific album. I can’t lie, I do tend to gravitate towards softer, a little gloomier music in the winter, which probably isn’t great for my mental health in the winter, but it is what it is, and here are some of my favorite albums that I associate with winter.
Oh, Spring Awakening the musical that you are. Spring Awakening means so much to me and it’s a musical that has had a huge impact on my life. When I was in college, the first show there that I assistant directed was Spring Awakening, and it was our winter musical, so I always associate the show with winter. Listening to it takes me back to those late winter nights in the theatre watching our cast perform I Believe and Those You’ve Known and feeling so lucky and honored to be working on the show. I also have almost the entire show in my vocal repertoire, and would spend hours singing Whispering with my voice teacher any time of year, but there was always something extra special about singing the lyrics “listening for the hope / for the new life / something beautiful, a new chance / hear its whispering there again” in the winter on the cusp of spring.
evermore is such a winter album — I mean with ‘tis the damn season on it how could it not be? evermore is my second favorite Taylor album and there’s something so magical about listening to it on the way home during winter nights after work. I also love turning it on during a cold and rainy day when I’m at home curled up in bed reading or just relaxing.
To me, Cry Pretty is Carrie’s most winter album (yes, even with Southbound on it) because it’s the most relaxed and laid back of all her albums. It’s a stunning album with, in my opinion, some of her best lyrics, but definitely the saddest and I tend to turn to it the most during the winter.
Just like the film is a serious winter watch for me, I love listening to the OBC recording in the winter. There really is just something magical about Anastasia that I associate with the winter, and I find such comfort in this story and characters. I do think it would be extra magical to be able to listen to this while it was snowing outside, but since it doesn’t snow here I have to settle for rain and pretending it’s snow as I dance around my room singing Journey to the Past 🤣
I mentioned in the fall edition of this post that I love baking in the fall, and I also love baking in the winter. I always bake for Christmas (this year I’m making s’more cookies, which I am VERY excited about) and I like continuing to bake in the winter. I usually just bake sweet items, but I really enjoy the baking activity more so than the eating — I typically will eat just a bit of the sweet treats while my family eats most of it, so I’d like to try making some more savory dishes in the next few months.
The winter months typically lend me to doing more crafting activities and there are some that I’m excited to continue and others I want to try! As always, I do lots of journaling — I have so much to catch up on with my theatre journal. I’ve only done spreads for 3 of the 21 shows I saw this year 😬so I’ve got a lot of work to do there! I got a diamond painting kit months ago but only did a little of it, so I’d like to get back to that and maybe try punch needling!
I’d love to know what some of your favorite things to read/watch/listen to/do in the winter are! I hope that you’re all having a wonderful holiday season!
Until next time 💜
