Homemaker Culture in Winter: A Time for the Makers
- Allison Weeks
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Show Notes and Full Article
Recently, one of my favorite YouTubers posted a video about winter homemaking. She quoted another creator who said, "Winter is for the makers." Drawing on historical records of early American life, we know that the winters were marked by long nights for extra sleep and days spent mostly indoors working with one's hands. Winter was a time for rest, but it was also time for a certain type of work.
Winter was the time to spin thread and weave cloth for sewing garments and linens. It was the time to craft a ready supply of wooden shingles to replace the ones lost in high winds and fierce storms. In winter, a family would often butcher a pig or other animal, and process the meat into sausages, cured cuts and other preserves. The cold weather would keep the meat safely chilled for the days required to complete the work of processing the animal.
The winter pace of life was slower, filled with long hours spent indoors, but the time was not wasted. It was the space reserved, not just for bodily restoration, but for the making and mending of the home in preparation for the demanding seasons ahead.
Winter Homemaker Culture
Modern technology has eliminated much of the activities our ancestors did out of necessity in winter. However, that doesn’t mean that making and mending offer no value to 21st century homemakers. In fact, these types of activities can benefit our households and enrich our minds.
We may not need to spin thread, weave cloth and make our own clothes out of necessity, but we may choose to practice some of those handi-crafts out of a desire to learn a timeless and valuable skill.
We may not have to whittle extra shingles for our roof, but we might want to learn basic woodworking to make bird feeders or toddler toys, or to be able to fix things around the house.
Most of us can hop in the car and go pick up our proteins from the market, but we may want to learn how to cut up a whole chicken or gut and filet a whole fish so we can save money purchasing larger cuts and stretching them over several meals.
When we resist the urge to jump headlong into the new-year-striving of our modern era, January and February can afford extra time for pursuing winter Homemaker Culture.
Homemaker Culture is a purposeful cultivation of your own soul, mind and skills with the express purpose of having something good, true and beautiful to offer those in your care.
It is a riff on Mother Culture, an idea made popular in Charlotte Mason homeschool communities, and I explain the concept more fully on Monday Motivation #6 from last year. You can listen HERE.
My personal practice of Homemaker Culture involves nurturing a rich spiritual life, artful life, natural life and creative life. I cultivate a rich spiritual life through Bible study, prayer and other spiritual disciplines. A rich artful life comes through reading great literature, and learning music and art appreciation. A rich natural life flourishes through spending time interacting with and learning about God’s creation. And I cultivate a rich creative life by working with my hands to make beautiful and useful things for my home. Winter is the perfect time to practice all aspects of Homemaker Culture, but particularly the creative life. Because winter is for the makers.
Rich Creative Life: Making & Mending
You can cultivate a rich creative life in winter by putting your hands to slow crafts. Quilting, embroidery, cross-stitch and other hand sewing projects can be completed, a little at a time, over the course of the winter.
During this season, I’ve been working on long-neglected projects in hopes that my slow and steady efforts will see them completed by Spring. Each day, after I eat lunch, I spend the last 10-15 minutes of my break cross-stitching a few colorful lines of thread on a sampler I began well over 10 years ago. And in the evenings, while watching TV with my husband, I stitch away on a quilt so long in process, I don’t even remember when I started.
You can also apply your needle to mending clothes or other textiles that have seen better days. If you are new to sewing, begin by learning basic mending stitches and techniques. Then, if you want, branch out to more advanced work. There are some amazing accounts on social media of stitchers who create miniature artworks out of patched holes and mended seams on everything from sweaters to couch cushions.
Bread baking is another slow work of the hands well suited for winter. Surfaces near radiators, wood stoves and fireplaces are ideal for rising dough. My favorite spot to proof dough in winter is my laundry room. It is so cozy and warm, the dough rises in about half the time.
Take advantage of the slow, less demanding winter pace to master a good basic bread recipe; or if you’ve already got that down, experiment with different grains or challenge yourself with a more advanced technique. Don’t worry if your experiments lead to an excess of bread. I’m sure your friends and neighbors would welcome a fresh loaf, and bread freezes very well when wrapped and stored properly.
A big project that I plan to tackle in February is painting my Grandmother’s antique pie safe to use as a linen cupboard. Winter is a great time to revive an old piece of furniture with a new finish or coat of paint, as long as you have good ventilation and wear protective gear if necessary.
I like to work with chalk paint as it has little to no odor and the only prep needed is to clean the piece. No primer required. However, the whole process of painting several coats, applying a protective wax, distressing, and buffing, when done properly, takes time. If I want the paint job to last, I have to be patient, waiting the necessary time between each step for the paint and wax to cure. I cannot be in a hurry.
Furniture refinishing is an ideal, slow work of the hands for winter Homemaker Culture, as it hones both my skills of painting and patience.
Other Areas of Homemaker Culture for Winter
So far in this article, I’ve mainly been focusing on cultivating a rich creative life, that is working with your hands at a craft or art form. But using your extra winter margin in any area of Homemaker Culture will be time well spent. Remember, the purpose is to cultivate your own soul, mind and skills so that you may offer something good, true and beautiful to those in your care. Here are a few ideas.
A Rich Art Life
Listen to classical music and study classical visual art with winter themes. Help what you are learning to stick by making a playlist of the music for your home and car rides and creating a screen saver of the art works for your TV, computer or phone. Expand you appreciation for literary art by reading poems, short stories or classics with winter themes.
RESOURCES
Winter Art~
Winter Music~
Winter Poetry~
A Rich Nature Life
Bundle up tight and head outside to observe and experience the natural world’s unique winter characteristics. Learn to identify the trees in your neighborhood by their shape and bark, which is often easier to do in winter when trees are bare.
Look for bird and animal tracks, especially if there’s snow on the ground, and learn to identify them. Marvel at the intricate and delicate patterns formed by ice and frost, especially in the early morning.
You can reinforce what you learn, and cultivate your creative life, by keeping a nature journal. You don't have to be an artist to enjoy keeping this kind of record.
RESOURCES
Winter Nature Study~
Nature Journaling How To~
I wrote an extensive article on the why and how of nature journaling in the newsletter last August. Here is a link to that newsletter, scroll down to the butterflies to find the article and its companion printable. 🦋 https://www.theartofhomepodcast.com/so/d4P49N5Mh?languageTag=en&cid=f89070d3-0898-4a96-b283-671c367cb1f9
A Rich Spiritual Life
Take the time in winter to slowly work your way through one book of the Bible. Read a few chapters a week, in multiple translations, writing down your observations and questions as you read. Try to summarize each chapter in a few sentences in your own words, or better yet, summarize the chapter around to someone else.
Dedicate extra time for prayer in the winter. If you normally pray for 5 minutes in the morning, make it 10. Read a biography or watch a documentary about a faithful Christian leader or missionary from the past. Study church history.
Reading about faithful believers and the timeline of Christ’s Church is not only encouraging but it helps us understand and appreciate our place in His redemptive story.
RESOURCES
Bible Study~
Women of the Word by Jen Wilken
The Art of Home's Deep Dive on Bible Study and corresponding newsletter article
Prayer~
Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Timothy Keller
Biographies & Church History~
50 People Every Christian Should Know by Warren Wiersbe
Church History in Plain Language by Bruce Shelley
Embrace the Time
As winter makes its lingering farewell over the next few weeks, I hope you will embrace the time, working with your hands, enriching your soul and engaging your mind. May you emerge from hibernation with goodness, truth and beauty to lift your spirit, grace your lips, and extend from your hands as a blessing to all those who find shelter in your home.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 3:11-13, NIV
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