I swapped my sandals for fur-lined boots when I moved with my family from Australia to Europe in 2008 and we began celebrating Christmas in wintertime. During the coldest, darkest days of the year, our home is filled with cosy tea lights, we snuggle under blankets while watching television, and Jack Frost nips at my nose when I walk to the local shops.
Nothing says winter more than curling up in front of a cosy fire with a terrific book. For those keen to pair the icy climate with a wintery tale, try the following.
In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
The Woods in Winter by Stella Gibbons
The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Høeg
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
A Winter Book: Selected Stories by Tove Jansson
Snow Blind by Ragnar Jónasson
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
My family still cooks seafood on the barbeque on Christmas Day, but we’re wrapped up in woolly layers and there’s no backyard pool to jump into after the pavlova has been eaten. Instead, a cosy fire beckons with a warming drink and a great book.