As I grow older, I find that I look forward to winter more and more. Admittedly, this could largely be due to the weather — living in the South, the summers seem to get longer and hotter with each passing year. While the tan-legged, summer-loving me of my youth would quite possibly have slathered on some Hawaiian Tropic oil and celebrated the growing presence of the sunny months, the me of now craves the crisp coolness that comes with winter.
It’s about more than just the number on the weather dial, though. Winter also encourages introspection. It’s a time of year when you retreat not only into your home, but also into yourself to an extent for shelter. For comfort. For renewal. It’s really a beautiful thing, when you think about it.
Consider that the shortest day of the year comes on the winter solstice. We have less time for all of the extraneous stuff that tends to weigh us down — there are just enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done. No more, no less. There’s a certain poetry to that.
And, of course, after the winter solstice the days begin to get longer and the nights shorter. This seasonal shift heralds the swing back around toward the spring, thus bringing our year full-circle.
Although I’d be remiss not to mention that there a few treasured holidays and traditions throughout the month surrounding winter solstice: namely Christmas and New Year’s. However, some cultures still observe ancient, pagan-based solstice festivals such as Feast of Juul and Saturnalia.
So just in time for the winter solstice, I pulled some quotes that celebrate this special time of year. Grab a cup of something warm and yummy, hunker down in your favorite nubby blanket, and get cozy with these words of winter.
What are some super-cozy winter solstice quotes?
“Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.” — Pietro Aretino
“The color of springtime is in the flower; the color of winter is in the imagination.” — Ward Elliot Hour
“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand, and for a talk beside the fire. It is the time for home.” — Edith Sitwel
“Welcome, winter. Your late dawns and chilled breath make me lazy, but I love you nonetheless.” — Terri Guillemets
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant. If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” — Anne Bradstreet
“I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood.” — Bill Watterson
“One kind word can warm three winter months.” — Japanese Proverb
“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, ‘Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” — Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.” — John Burroughs, Winter Sunshine
“In the winter, she curls up around a good book and dreams away the cold.” — Ben Aaronovitch, Broken Homes
“Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour.” — John Boswell
What do you say on winter solstice?
Wondering what to say to people during the winter solstice? Try these messages and phrases:
- “Let the light always remind us that the sun will soon return.”
- “Wishing you a warm winter solstice!”
- “Blessed is the season that conspires the world in warmth and joy.”
- “In the season of cold and white, may your spirit always shine happy and bright.”
- “May the miracles of winter solstice inspire you.”
What are some other winter solstice quotes?
- “O! Mighty Goddess, in silver ice,
watching over us as we sleep,
a layer of shining white,
frost on the world and in the soul,
we thank you for visiting us.
Because of you, we seek warmth
in the comfort of our homes and hearths.” — Patti Wigington - “Don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.” — Rumi
- “This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past let’s go and becomes the future’ the place of caught breath, the door of a vanished house left ajar.” — Margaret Atwood
- “The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory.” — Gary Zukav
- “Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake.” — Sara Raasch
- “The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?” — J.B. Priestley
- “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” — John Steinbeck
- “You can’t get too much winter in the winter.” — Robert Frost