Keeping Cozy After Christmas

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We all feel it, don’t we?

December 26^th, we look around our house at the tree, twinkling lights hanging above the window, and Frosty deflated in the front yard.

The post-Christmas blues.

It’s easy to feel cozy and get the warm fuzzies in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Giggling through snowstorms, braving the frosty air to pick up lunch. But once that date is over on the calendar, something in us deflates just a little bit like our friend Frosty.

Because the truth is, winter blues are a real thing. A house after Christmas decorations feels sad and empty.

But there is joy in winter! We can keep the comfort and cozy after Christmas morning.

Christmas is the start of the winter season

When we look at that calendar, the first day of winter here in America is only a few days before Christmas.

In our minds, it’s so easy to see the weeks before the 25^th as “winter” and then we get burnt out on the cold and the snow. We miss our gatherings, and the smell of vanilla extract in all that comes out of the kitchen.

In truth, Christmas is just the start of winter, and that brings a smile to my face.

Just because Santa came and went, and presents were opened, doesn’t mean the magic of the season ends in January, or even February or March.

Imagine for a minute, January 18^th at 10:00 in the morning. What are you doing? Are you at home nestled inside with a roaring fire going? Is there a smell of cinnamon and nutmeg wafting in from the kitchen, warm cookies pulled just from the oven?

The turn of a new day or even a new year doesn’t erase an entire season. We don’t make it to Christmas floating on clouds of comfort and joy, only to drudge through the rest of winter, surviving one more snowfall.

I’m an indoors person.

Try as I might and much to my outdoorsy husband and igloo building children dismay, I’m much happier curled up in bed with twinkling fairy lights on, knitting amongst the happy bustle of children coming in and out to play.

My preference for being indoors doesn’t mean I despise winter, it’s actually become my second favorite season behind fall. But that doesn’t mean I close all the curtains and wait it out until those few magical weeks next December.

So how do we fight the winter blues?

How do we fight that urge to complain about the cold, close everything up, and survive winter?

We never finish celebrating Christmas. At least, not fully.

Sure, take the ornaments off the tree (or scrap the whole tree if it’s real and looking sad and dry) but don’t take it all down.

Cozy after Christmas is healing

Last January I was pregnant and had just been told that my unborn baby had a soft marker for down syndrome.

Those last 3 months of consulting and waiting were hard. I needed every bit of distraction and joy I could get in those final grueling months of pregnancy, especially with an ultrasound that couldn’t be confirmed or denied.

To keep myself distracted from the worry that could take over, to keep the joy in our home and in our family in simple ways that we could, I decided that Christmas just wasn’t fully going to be done. We took down the tree, only because it was a live one, but I discovered how easy it was to keep some of the Christmas décor, spirit, and joy going all throughout the winter.

8 ways to keep the cozy after Christmas

Today I want to share with you those tips, in the hope that whatever you’re feeling on this wintery day, you can use any or all of them to keep the cozy going in your home and in your life. Those tips are:

1. Greenery

If you can, consider keeping up your tree. Without the ornaments and colorful lights, it represents the evergreens of winter so well. You can keep it bare if you want the green hue to really capture the room, or redecorate the tree with a wintery theme. White fairy lights, tiny clear snowflake ornaments, or sparkly white tinsel oozes winter warmth instead of Christmas cheer.

2. Lighting

Besides your tree, there are probably plenty of other places you hung lights at Christmas or could hang lights now. Battery operated lights above the bathroom mirror or tucked on a shelf of yarn and books adds so much hygge feelings. Candles and lamps are another way to keep warm lights in your home. No matter how cloudy or dreary looking the snow can start to look, you can turn it around in your mind when you look out the window of a cozy home.

3. Winter smells

Christmas comes with a lot of holiday-specific scents, like peppermint that might feel strange in February. But there are just as many, if not more general winter specific scents that can fill your house through candles, wallflowers, or essential oils.

• -Hot chocolate
• -Cranberry
• -Cinnamon
• -Nutmeg
• -Vanilla
• -Cookies
• -Evergreen

4. Winter hobbies

Winter is the warmest time of the year in a way, to me. Yes we have no central air in the summer, but in the winter there are so many baskets and bags of yarn laying around that cozy travels through the house in every crack. Winter is the time to continue or start a new hobby. Especially if you received supplies or gift cards as Christmas gifts. Finding a comfy chair by the fire or by the window next to falling snow, curled up with a good book or a snowy Thomas Kinkade puzzle is as cozy as it gets to me. It’s never too early to start Christmas presents for next year, either, so don’t be afraid of Christmas knitting like stockings and tree skirts for next year’s gifts. Or, you could even keep the cozy going in the kitchen with the same Christmas cookie baking energy you had in December. There’s no wrong time to eat snickerdoodles or peanut butter blossoms. And cooking hot soups and chili makes me feel like I’m being cozy and super productive!

5. Warm layers

Even though we probably pull them out in September or October, knit blankets and faux fur throws continue to add cozy warmth in February. Special blankets that have great meaning will also bring comfort around Valentine’s Day and into the surprise snowy March weekends.

6. Crackling fire

Do you have a fireplace? Whether it’s wood burning, gas, or on your TV screen like me, fireplaces exude warmth and coziness. It’s on our wish list to get a potbelly fireplace in our existing chimney and get it up and running again. Whether it snows or not, you’ll keep that warm Christmas feeling all winter and have a smaller risk of winter blues and cabin fever.

7. Hygge reading lists

I’ve been a longtime fan of cozy mysteries, from yarn shop to baking themes. They usually involve lots of coffee, likable sleuths, and charming new crushes. But I was gifted my very first hygge magazines this Christmas that I’m hooked on: Bella Grace and Willow and Sage. Stampington has a few other cozy reads, but I’m already sold on the positive and cozy stories of Bella Grace and the homemade bath and body products in Willow and Sage. They’re both relaxing reads with beautiful photography and calming words. The newest Cozy Issue has everything from unexpected sources of coziness to cozy playlists.

8. Cozy fictional towns

Sometimes, when all is said and done, life is just hard. If you’ve tried keeping the cozy after Christmas and are still feeling sort of bummed, look to fictional hygge towns in books, movies, and TV shows. We all need to get lost in another world now and then, and old and new comforting characters, scenery, and stories can do just that. If this list isn’t wintery enough, scrap it and turn some Hallmark Christmas movies back on- I won’t tell! Some of the most hygge fictional towns are:

• Stars Hollow (Gilmore Girls)
• Pemberley (Pride and Prejudice)
• Virgin River (Virgin River)
• Bluebell (Hart of Dixie)
• Serenity (Sweet Magnolias)

When I tell you that these eight, simple steps to not fully be finished with Christmas transformed our winter, I say it with so much joy and gratification!

Life is hard. Winter is hard. But a winter that’s celebrated on the foundation of Christmas coziness is done with so much love.

They say one kind word can warm three months of winter. What can more Christmas spirit do to three months of winter?