🎄🎧Season 4 Episode 1 ✨Hear the Bells✨

And breathe… Come my friend, let’s sit awhile beside this great rock on the beach, out of the wind, listening to the sea and making a list of things we’d like to take forward into the darker part of the year, for comfort, for joy, for remembrance.

Here, take a blanket, I brought us one each. Hold this mug, will you, while I pour from the flask. I baked some gingerbread stars this morning. Would you like one?

I know we usually begin a new season of the Calm Christmas podcast in the kitchen of my little thatched cottage, but the air was so clear today, and the seagulls were calling, and I felt drawn to the sea instead. So that is where Season 4 of the Calm Christmas Podcast begins, with ‘Hear the Bells’, an episode all about rest and renewal.

I hope you love this episode, which you can listen to on Substack or via Apple Podcasts or Spotify as usual.

And if you are the kind of person who finds it restful and calming to have a plan, feel free to download my free printable Calm Christmas planner here.

I would also love to invite you to join me and writers from all over the world in this year’s Winter Writing Sanctuary which is free again this year. Nine days of cosy, thoughtful writing, starting in that quiet time between Christmas and New Year. What’s not to love? You can sign up here. I hope you will bring your friends - all welcome!

Lastly, I have been asked by many of you to share the words from the poem I wrote for you, which I read out on the trailer last week. Here it is:

The Keepers of Christmas by Beth Kempton

   We are the keepers of Christmas,

   the fairy light hangers, the candle-lighters,

   the carol singers, the wrap-all-nighters

   the tradition preservers and new memory makers,

   the story tellers, the mince pie bakers.

   We are the list creators, the cracker crafters,

   We’ve a plan for the build up, and a plan for the afters.

   We sense the season on the winter breeze

   We make home cosy, ahead of the freeze

   We take time to pause and take it all in

   The turn of the year, the settling in

   The shadows of loss, the sparkles of light

   Our love is a lantern, on every dark night.

   We are the keepers of Christmas.

May this podcast be a friend through all that lies ahead in the darkest season, a signpost back to joy whatever unfolds.

Much love to you,

Beth Xx

Show Notes

We begin this new season of the Calm Christmas Podcast by the sea, listening to the sound of the waves and contemplating what it really means to rest. We will share a hot cuppa and conversations about longing and joy, and much more including:

·      A new Light Corner

·      Our old favourites – Nature and Wellbeing Corners

·      A lovely hot drink recipe

·      Traditions from around the world

·      Get ahead tips

·      Some lovely goodies for you

With inspiration from @KerriniDochartaigh @botanical_tales @nigelslater @francescaamber @rspca_official @bbc @leigh.standley @mudnbloom Sam Kamkanamge

Enjoy!

Beth Xx

Lovely things for you

• Head to @bethkempton on Instagram for the chance to win our first festive book giveaway of the season!

• Join the Winter Writing Sanctuary for free HERE.

• Download a printable Calm Christmas Planner for free HERE.

What you need for the Mud & Bloom leaf lanterns:

• Autumn leaves

• Jam jars

• PVA glue

• A paint brush

• Cotton thread in autumnal colours

• Tea lights

Hot apple recipe ingredients:

• Apple juice (we use clear but cloudy would be fine)

• The peel of a satsuma or clementine, artfully twisty if you have that skill

• A cinnamon stick

• A little bit of ginger

• Other spices like cloves or star anise, if you like them

• Some honey or sugar

References:

• Cacophony of Bone by Kerri ni Dochartaigh (Canongate)

• The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater (Fourth Estate)

• Joy. Boats. Time. On longing, choices and the tyranny of ‘just’ essay on Substack:

Joy. Boats. Time.

• Shakti mat (no affiliation)

• How you can help garden wildlife this winter (BBC Newsround)

• Leigh Standley’s spell pot on Instagram

• Autumn Leaf Lanterns how-to (Mud + Bloom)

• Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year by Beth Kempton (Piatkus)

• Sen Wellness

• Hear the Bells by Calexico video

Images: First Holly Bobbins | Second Unsplash

Transcript available on iTunes here.