It’s that time of year again, where the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer. Even though I love Autumn and cosy evenings, I do miss the sunny days… it’s just not the same waking up in the dark every morning! Therefore, as we get out of into Autumn and into winter, I find myself looking forward to winter solstice. If you’re the same, here are a few ways to celebrate winter solstice in your bullet journal!

Recommended Supplies:

• Archer and Olive Journal – The lovely and thick pages have no bleeding or ghosting, so you get a clean start for every spread! Also, it means you can decorate the spread without worrying about it.
• Pencil – To carefully plan out your ideas so you can make sure your spread has everything you need.
• Fineliners – My favourites are the Unipin fineliners as they’re waterproof, affordable and have a strong nib.
• Decorative Touch (optional) – This could be anything from washi to watercolour, or of course, nothing! I usually like to add a personal touch to my spreads so they’re more fun to use and look at.

What Is Winter Solstice?

I’ll be honest, up until recently, I didn’t actually know what winter solstice was. I simply knew it as the shortest day of the year. But I found out winter solstice is actually something widely celebrated around the world.

If like me you’re not sure what it is, in basic terms it is the mid point of winter with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year. As I am in the Northern Hemisphere, this happens in December. But if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, you will probably wonder why I’m talking about it now, because for you the solstice happens in June! Also, for some people winter solstice marks the beginning of winter rather than the mid point. It’s really interesting that one day can mean so many different things to different people!

As I said before, for me winter solstice is simply the shortest day of the winter, and it’s significant to me as I look forward to brighter mornings. However, in some cultures it is a very significant time of year where symbolically it is the death and rebirth of the Sun, so it is celebrated with festivals and rituals. For this blog, I talked to a few of my bullet journal friends in different parts of the world to see what winter solstice means to them, and how they like to celebrate it in their bullet journal.

Countdowns

The first thing that comes to mind for me when I think about celebrating winter solstice in my bullet journal is a countdown to the day! Whether you’re counting down to celebrations, or simply counting down to brighter days, it’s a fun way to get excited. Not all of these trackers are specifically for winter solstice, but they could all be easily tweaked to work for you!!

My favourite tracker is this one by Marie (@metro_boulot_bujo). Here you can see how she has kept a track of how the nights were starting to get longer. If you wanted to do this, you could include the whole month like Marie has, or a countdown to winter solstice. You could also make it simpler but just highlighting either the sunlight hours or night hours if you’re not as creative as Marie!

Another idea for a countdown tracker is to create doodles, one for each day of the countdown, and colour them in each day! This example is a Christmas countdown by Julia (@julia.pezowicz) but you could adapt this to be more suited to winter solstice with anything you wish. One with snowflakes or little suns could be really cool! 

Finally, I couldn't find an example, but if you want to do something really simple you could make a countdown by making a box for each day until winter solstice, and crossing off or colouring in each day that passes!

Winter Bucket Lists

I was talking with Julia ( @julia.pezowicz) about what winter solstice means to us. She said for her it’s time to complete her autumn bucket list, and start on her winter bucket list! I thought this was an amazing idea, and if you want to do one too here are some ideas:

An example of a bucket list perfect for this time of year is this one by Masha (@mashaplans). It includes lots of lovely activities like family movie time, lighting fall scented candles and drinking pumpkin lattes!

  I love this winter bucket list by Anna (@anna_akhremenko), which has more fun things to do at this time of year!

And finally, here’s another lovely layout idea by Ola (@chwila.dlasiebie) where they can check of each item as they complete it!

Hygge

For Elizabeth (@elizabeth.kramer.art), winter solstice is the start of winter, and it a time to bring elements of hygge into her days. I had never heard of hygge before, but it’s a Danish word that doesn’t have a direct translation in English. But in short, hygge means “cosiness” and by bringing hygge into your days, it means really simple things such as lighting candles, having nights in with friends and home baking. If you’re still not sure what it is, head over to Lisa’s Instagram (@the.whimsical.journal) and you’ll understand exactly what I mean!

If these images inspire you, maybe you want to bring some elements of hygge into your bujo. If so, why not start with a reminder of what Hygge is like this gorgeous spread by Elizabeth (@elizabethturn):

I love this spread by @din_notes of their perfect cosy day. Makes me want to doodle mine too:

And here’s an ultimate guide to hygge with gorgeous drawings by @bullet_journal_joys, which would be a lovely idea to think about your favourite things and include them in your journal:

Winter Illustrations

And finally, a way I always celebrate winter solstice in my journal is including some sort of drawing/painting/quote about winter.

Here’s my favourite wintery painting:

And a fun winter quote by Stephanie (@stephiejournals):

Hopefully I’ve given you some help and inspiration to celebrate winter solstice in you journal! And if I have, I would love to see your spreads, so tag me on Instagram (@hayleyremdeart) and use #hayleyremdeinspired to get the chance to get your creations featured in my stories!