Sister Winter
A Good Folk Holiday Playlist + Gift Guide
Hey, Hi, Hello, Folks,
Years ago now, I remember once walking through a snowstorm in early December in New York City, watching the light fade at 4PM, listening to JOSEPH’s cover of Sufjan Stevens’ Sister Winter: Now my heart is returned to sister winter / Now my heart is as cold as ice. The world was frozen and cold, and I thought I understood it, finally, the joy and isolation that winter brings. The cool, clear sunsets and the crisp air on my face. There is no feeling like that of walking through a field at sunset in winter, the distant smell of fire in the air. When I think of winter, that is what I think of most, and of course, that also brings me back to many of the places that remain homes for me: the mountains and hills of North Carolina, the cold rivers of New York, the sprawling marshes of the Southeastern Lowcountry.
These are places I often associate with December through my own return to them during specific timeframes. I talk often of home as a place, but I believe that home can also be a time. There are certainly places that have served as homes for me that only feel that way when remembered through the lens of temperature, of season. I once spent a time calling the deserts of the Middle East home, a late November and early December of another life. Those deserts in their scorch would feel alien, that I know. The holidays that spread across these weeks, which are so often associated with the idea of home, raise also, for me, so many connections to time and place, which these days I believe make up far more of the feeling of home than the landscape itself. Home is a different place in July than it is in December— and within it, so am I.
It’s strange to listen back to a song you’ve listened to for years and realize that you are not at all the same person who once listened to it. This has been a year of change, so much so that I hardly recognize the person I was even just three weeks ago. It’s been a year of exiting my early twenties and shifting into this strange and beautiful middle period, of finally realizing what it is that brings me joy. It’s been a year of embarking on the slow path towards the life I wish to live. It starts with small things— dying my hair red— and leads to larger ones— taking a solo trip to a place I have never been before. It’s worrying less about the image of a life I am cultivating and more about the life itself.
For me, these holidays have little to do with anything they relate to or symbolize and more about the experience of marking an ending, a renewal. I always feel most myself in the weeks from Halloween to New Years, more at peace than I do any other time of the year. In that spirit, I’ve put together a little Good Folk inspired holiday playlist, one that might be the most chaotic and all-over-the-place of ones you will find. I had a thought to center it around rural and Southern artists, and then it delved into whatever it has become, this conglomeration of sounds that encompass what this month feels like to me: equal parts reflective, nostalgic, joyous, and longing.
You can listen to the full playlist on Spotify by clicking above, and I’ll take this moment to plug some of our other Spotify playlists as well (to really balance the seasons, we have a summer one, too!)
I’ll plug below a few things that I think would make great gifts for the Southerner in your life. If anyone reading this wants to send me a gift, I’ll happily take anything on this list.
Sending you all so much love and healing this week. The holidays can be hard, especially for those of us with difficult conceptions of family; if you find yourself just wanting to talk to someone, know that you can always reach out.
Read the Oxford American Tie-Dye T-Shirt
Support Southern journalism and look cool while doing it!
Bitter Southerner Better South Beliefs Print
This print lives in the back of my mind at all times. Get this.
Waffle House Vistas 2.0 by Micah Cash
Also sold through Bitter Southerner, but who doesn’t need a book of the views from Waffle Houses all over the South in their life?
Anyone who has ever been to my house will already know of my East Fork pottery obsession, but this chai kit sure does make a great gift.
Virginia is for Moonshine Lovers Trucker Hat
OK, so you can’t technically order this right now as the Blue Ridge Institute is closed for orders. BUT, when it opens back up… I bought this hat a few months ago at the Blue Ridge Folklife Fest and love it.
Mary Oliver fans, it’s our time to shine.
I recently learned of the Bootitude account, and now I simply need everything that is sold here.
And lastly, as always, anything from your local bookstore. We can’t change the stories of this region if we don’t have places to share and distribute those stories. A few that I recommend in my neck of the woods: Golden Fig, Epilogue, Malaprop’s, Hub City, The Regulator, Blue Bicycle Books, and Flyleaf. You can also use IndieBound to locate a local bookstore near you.
Love this : “I talk often of home as a place, but I believe that home can also be a time.” Beautiful writing ❤️