Advent 2025

I have a long held theory about when capitalism really took over the world and I date it as the year (unknown) when instead of a paper advent calendar with a wee picture of a star or a shepherd or an angel behind a door, I received one which had chocolates. These days if chocolate isn't indulgent enough for you, there is jam, or socks or perfume or mashed potato, whatever takes your fancy or suits your budget, however large, although I'm not sure anyone needs 24 luxury watches in a month.

Advent is the start of the church year in western Christianity and in reading more about it for the purposes of this blog, I have discovered that each of the four weeks is often linked with a particular theme: hope, peace, joy and love. All things that I am sure we can agree the world needs more of. I'm quite good at channeling "starting" energy - so new weeks, new months, new years all appeal to me. If you add in other ways to celebrate the year, like the Wheel of the Year and its eight festivals, plus other cultural and religious new years, then you can keep that energy going all the time. Except maybe at this time of year, when the start of advent heralds the (official) start of winter, and instead of channeling doing energy, it's probably better to learn from the plants and animals and slow down.

Since learning about the concept of a winter mindset and of wintering well, I don't think I will ever stop focusing on this when the clocks change and the darkness starts to descend. Kari Leibowitz's book "How to Winter" has just been published in paperback and I am devouring it for a second time, leaning into her themes of appreciating winter, making it special and getting outside. I've also been bullying friends into reframing their relationship with winter and I think it's working, I received the above photograph as I was writing this from a pal who is trying hard to enjoy the light in what has been a dark old week. Incessant rain and Storm Bram has meant that even when you do venture out, more often than not it's in the dark which makes it harder to notice what's happening in nature. Unless a fallen silver birch tree completely blocks your path as happened this morning.

But there are things to notice in nature in winter. It's not just the heaped up soggy autumn leaves in the gutter. Since the start of December I've been looking to the sky for inspiration, which meant I enjoyed the cloud picture even more. (Side note, I know mobile phones can take over our lives in not such positive ways, but what joy to be able to send a photograph to someone instantly!) The first week in December was easy, the last supermoon of 2025 was visible in the sky from mid-afternoon into the night, and even when clouds filled the sky the moon seemed to find a way to peer out from between them. Even earlier this week, several days after the full moon, her unexpected brightness brought me to the window to look out in wonder. Then just as the moon starts to fade, Storm Bram has brought wild, impressionist skies, forever changing in the strong winds, one minute grey, one minute white, then pink and blue. I was somewhat scornful when I read that Pantone's 2026 Colour of the Year was to be - effectively - white! However since I first read the story I've softened a bit towards "cloud dancer" the official name of the colour, not least because of its name. As I sit here looking out of the window some of those white clouds are definitely dancing, and at least they are bright. If you're struck down by interminable grey skies, then don't forget the experiment on the BBC Radio 4 Winter Well programme, where they talk about focusing on a specific portion of sky through a frame to draw attention to the numbers of different colours that are actually there, even if the overall effect remains grey. And there's more to come: for other things to notice in the sky this December, check out the winter celestial highlights here.

I'm also using all the twinkly lights at my disposal to make sure that indoor winter is special, plus utilising heated blankets, fluffy socks and my favourite new device from South Lanarkshire's very own community interest company Feel The Warmth: they make infrared kidney warmers which keep you toasty even when you're out and about in the winter weather, invaluable to someone who is almost always cold.

Whilst we've not created a full advent calendar this year, our weekly winter wonders are going down well. We update the website and send out an email with a list of suggestions to our mailing list every Monday. I've particularly enjoyed researching things to watch and am particularly excited about settling down to watch Dame Judi Dench: My Passion for Trees which is available on BBC iPlayer until the end of the month. That's a sneak peek for what's coming up next week, but here are the other wonders we've waded through so far this December:

• Winter Wonders so far:

• Things to watch: Birdsong; More about Mistletoe.

• Creative activities: Make a bird feeder; make a twig star.

• Festive foliage: Sweet chestnuts; mistletoe.

• Winter walks: Get Walking Lanarkshire; Go Jauntly advent challenge

• Forest bathing prompts: Listen to the birds; Use your eyes.

That's all from the blog in 2025, thanks for reading along. Enjoy the rest of advent and the festive season, as ever I point you to the best video we ever made for all the nature based winter inspiration you can handle!