Do you feel it yet? The pull to wintering? The urge to slow down and, if not quite hibernate, at least slip into the torpor of the hedgehog, curled in a cosy nest.
It’s tugging on my sleeve like an impatient child, but its pleas will be ignored because, just like everyone else, I’m being swept along on the current of near-frenetic ‘doing’ in the run-up to Christmas.
While, for once, I’m slightly ahead on the present-buying, (it helps if you have a very small list to begin with), I’ve somehow managed to fill my diary right up until the last weekend.
I’ve never understood why we decided — so completely against our own nature — that our descent into winter needed, not the soft glow of candles and long dark evenings cwtched up by the fire, but the bright lights of supermarkets, shopping centres, and overcrowded pubs.
My long list of issues with the consumerist gorge-fest that begins on Black Friday and doesn’t pause for breath until the new year will need an entirely separate post. But today it’s the paradoxical timing that’s occupying me. Maybe this mismatch between our natural flow of energy and the way to choose to celebrate our national holidays is why so many of us feel wrung out at this time of year.
So what’s the answer? Well, we’re not about to move Christmas to a more seasonally and energetically aligned moment anytime soon, so my answer is to find moments in between the chaos for stillness and quiet time. To resist the urge to add more dates, more presents and ever more elaborate expectations (matching tableware anyone?) for a holiday that has become anything but. I’m going to winter anyway.
Here’s to channelling our inner hedgehogs. 🧡
This article was first published on Substack on 25 November 2025.