The Calm Christmas Podcast with Beth Kempton

🎄The UK’s #1 favourite Christmas podcast is back for a sixth season of cosiness and calm, hosted by bestselling British author Beth Kempton.
🕯️Here in Episode 1 ‘Preparation: Lamp light + love lists’ we begin with a few simple ways to prepare our homes and hearts for the coming winter. This episode includes:
· A permission slip for autumn
· Sensible ways to prepare for storms and other such winter emergencies
· Some thoughtful journalling questions
· A sweet Christmas countdown craft project
· A lovely idea for a new tradition
· A delicious recipe for gingerbread
· Some kitchen decluttering
· Reading recommendations and other analogue joy
· An introduction to a little friend who lives in my garden
· Get ahead tips
· Some lovely goodies for you
With inspiration from Alix Klingenberg, Ark Wildlife, Charlotte McConaghy, Virginia Evans, Holly Ringland, Bonnie Garmus, Katie Clapham Prue Leith and my children.
Enjoy!
Beth Xx
LINKS TO LOVELY THINGS
🎁 Head to @bethkempton on Instagram for the chance to win our first festive book giveaway of the season, with a prize worth over £750, including a complimentary place on my new dreamy writing + cataloguing immersion FEATHER+PEN
🍂 Join in my #tinyautumnpoem free ten-minute daily poetry challenge on Instagram and Substack Notes Beth Kempton every day until the end of November
❄️ Register for the Winter Writing Sanctuary at dowhatyouloveforlife.com for free (runs Dec 28-Jan 3)
✨ Up to 50% off all my classes in my annual gratitude sale at dowhatyouloveforlife.com
BOOKS, WEBSITES ETC MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
-  Winter Has Plans of Its Own by Alix Klingenberg in Quietly Wild by Alix Klingenberg (Mandala) p.60
-  The Countdown to Christmas Gingerbread House was inspired by this video by @aglowingbeauty on Pinterest
- The UK government's Be Ready campaign
- Ark Wildlife on squirrels
- Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
-  The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
- The World Beneath Her Feet by Holly Ringland
- Receipts from the bookshop: A Bookseller’s Year by Katie Clapham
- Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus
- Leith’s Cookery Bible by Prue Leith and Caroline Waldegrave (Bloomsbury)
- Royal Mail's Last Posting Dates      

INGREDIENTS for the gingerbread biscuits - my version of a recipe which originated in the Leith’s Cookery Bible by Prue Leith and Caroline Waldegrave (Bloomsbury)
Ingredients:
- 340g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 heaped teaspoon ground ginger
- 2 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 225g butter, softened
- 170g caster sugar
- 170g dark muscovado sugar (the original recipe used soft brown sugar, and also included a teaspoon each of freshly grated nutmeg and ground cloves)

THINGS YOU’LL NEED to make the Christmas Countdown Gingerbread House
- Some thin brown card
- A photo frame (any size you like)
- Some cute wrapping paper about the same size as your photo frame
- A white gel pen or white Posca paint pen
-Two clips
- A hot glue gun or other strong glue
- Scissors
- Glue


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit calmchristmas.substack.com

🎄The UK’s favourite Christmas podcast is back for a sixth series: HIBERNACLE, with host Beth Kempton. Please enjoy this the trailer for a glimpse of what is in store. May this be a place of winter refuge in the darkest season.
🕯️Episode 1 ‘PREPARATION: lamp light + love lists’ will be released on Thursday November 12, 2026. Mark your calendar and prepare for the return of the cosiest podcast.
Series 6 'HIBERNACLE' includes:
✨Stories of Christmas traditions from listeners across the world
✨Ideas for a calmer Christmas
✨ Thoughtful journalling prompts
✨ Cosy reading recommendations
✨Seasonal recipes and craft projects
✨Nature corner
✨Giveaways of lovely things
✨And new for 2026 –  we will be exploring ideas for Analogue Joy
🎄Share your thoughts at calmchristmas.substack.com
📖Inspired by the book by Beth Kempton: Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year (Piatkus)
💙Please share the podcast with anyone who might appreciate a little calm and Christmas magic this year!

RECOMMENDATIONS + REFERENCES:
-> FREE registration for the Winter Writing Sanctuary at https://dowhatyouloveforlife.com
 -> Subscribe to the Calm Christmas Podcast on iTunes or at https://calmchristmas.substack.com


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit calmchristmas.substack.com

***Please note the silence in today’s episode is intentional to accommodate a series of journalling questions!***
Happy new year friends! The final episode of each season of this podcast is always a bittersweet moment. Christmas is behind us, we are deep in winter now, and a new year is upon us, with all its promise and possibility. I hope today’s episode eases you in thoughtfully, and leaves you hopeful about the year ahead. It includes:
* My favourite poem to read as a new year begins
* Twelve potent journalling questions (with silent writing time in between each one)
* Some thoughts on things to plant at this time of year
* An invitation to head outdoors, whatever the weather
* A special recipe from Great British Bake Off Finalist Christiaan de Vries
* A few ways to stay connected in the year ahead, if you’d like that
With inspiration from Max Ehrmann, Susan Coolidge and Christiaan de Vries. You can listen on iTunes, Spotify or here on Substack.
Thank you so much for journeying through the festive season with me this year. What a joy it has been. I hope you have enjoyed this 'winterlude’ as much as I have. Don’t forget to subscribe so you get notified when The Calm Christmas Podcast is back next November. Until then, I hope to see you on my other Substack @Beth Kempton.
✨Wishing you a light-filled 2026✨
Beth Xx
Lovely things for you
* ❤️ Our final giveaway on Instagram @bethkempton (The prize includes a personalised signed copy of my book The Way of the Fearless Writer, a Made of Stars journal by Meera Lee Patel, a goals journal from Mal Paper, a Midori sticky note pad to capture your ideas for the new year, and a complimentary place on my online class Do What You Love: the life-changing e-course.
* ❤️ MOON+SHADOW - a beautiful one-day virtual winter writing retreat taking place on Sunday January 11, 2026. This is FREE to all members of my private writing community SoulCircle. If you aren’t a member yet you can join here (choose Monthly to try it out or Annual to get a lovely discount). If you are already a member you don’t need to do anything. I’ll be sending out more details soon.
* ❤️ Join me for a gorgeous live seven-week deep dive writing and Substack immersion INK+FLAME, which begins on January 26. You can get 30% off if you register here by January 12.
* ❤️ You can get a huge 30% off ALL my writing and personal development classes (or 50% off bundles of inspiring classes to guide you through the year) in my gratitude sale (on here until Monday January 12, 2026).
Other links
* Desiderata by Max Ehrmann
* New Every Morning by Susan Coolidge
Ingredients for Christiaan De Vries’ Fluffy Pancakes
* Your usual pancake ingredients (here’s BBC Good Food’s Easy Pancake Recipe)
* Raisins
* A bit of rum
* Butter
* Icing sugar

Image: Holly Bobbins


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit calmchristmas.substack.com

Friends, I hope you had a lovely, peaceful holiday, or indeed, whatever kind of Christmas you had hoped for, and if you didn’t, well it’s done now, and you enjoy a quiet few days ahead and then a shiny new year.
I always feel mixed emotions at this particular time of year, sad that Christmas is over, relieved that all the work of Christmas is done, and hopeful that everyone enjoyed as best they could, given the circumstances, and also secretly delighted about this sacred pause that I call ‘The Hush’ and love so very much.
For many years now, I have sensed something very special about these precious days between Christmas and New Year. It’s as if some kind of portal opens up. January will be here before we know it, but until then, let’s stretch these days as wide open as we can and meander for a while, giving our minds and hearts a chance to assimilate and process all that’s happened over the past 12 months and plant some seeds for the year ahead.
This moment is that fleeting pause when time bends and magic hovers between the book ends of the season. We must and we should are abandoned in favour of ‘Shall we...?’ and ‘We could...’ Spontaneity and softness become the order of the day. This is a precious time to breathe deeply, savour moments with loved ones or alone. Feel the world slowing for just a while. It’s a time for reflection and releasing, meandering and dreaming, and today’s episode is all about that.
It includes:
* The special magic of this time I call ‘the Hush’
* An amazing story of manifestation, which began on this podcast
* An invitation to speak your dreams aloud
* A beautiful wintery visualisation
* A potent question to guide you beneath the surface of things
* Lots of love for deer
* How to make a vision board
* A delicious soup recipe from Mark Diacono
* Some goodies for you
* A gentle could-do list for the week ahead
With inspiration from Ryokan Taigu, Calexico, Blackdown Shepherd Huts, Fog Chaser, Laura Pashby, Shaun Davey, the Natural History Museum, BBC Wildlife Magazine, Mark Diacono and Kate Trenchard. You can listen on iTunes/Spotify or here on Substack.
Wishing you peace and joy for these in-between days,
Beth Xx
Lovely things for you
* The Winter Writing Sanctuary FREE seven-day gentle writing class, starts Monday December 29 (join here)
* Moon + Shadow one-day virtual writing retreat on January 11 (join from anywhere, FREE to all paid subscribers/members of my SoulCircle private writing community. If you are not a member yet you can join here).
Books mentioned
* Chasing Fog by Laura Pashby
Other links
* Hear the Bells by Calexico
* Blackdown Shepherd Huts
* A Peek Inside the (Tiny) Hut that Words Built (essay by me)
* The Deer’s Cry by Shaun Davey
* A Simple Carol by Matt Evans Fog Chaser (60 minute version)
* Reindeer at the Natural History Museum
* BBC Wildlife Magazine on the difference between deer and reindeer
Ingredients for Mark Diacono’s Cauliflower and Sage Soup
* Two teaspoons of coriander seeds
* Two teaspoons of cumin seeds
* One tablespoon of butter
* One tablespoon of olive oil, and more for the sage
* Two onions finely chopped
* Two garlic cloves finely chopped
* One medium to large cauliflower chopped into three centimetre or one inch cubes
* 1.2 litres or two pints of hot water
* 12 sage leaves,
* Curry powder to serve
* Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit calmchristmas.substack.com

There is a moment of silence that occurs every year somewhere between the dawn of Christmas Eve and the setting of the sun on Christmas Day itself. A moment we all have experienced at least once in our lives, maybe more than once. It can silence a great city like London or New York, and it can bring stillness to our hearts, whoever and wherever we may be. That moment of silence is unlike any other. It offers the promise of new beginnings, of the clean slate of New Year, and it incorporates the breathless expectancy of Christmas Night itself, when a familiar figure enters our lives and changes them briefly. - The Winter Solstice by John Matthews

Welcome to Christmas Eve Eve and to Season Five, Episode Seven, Driving Home for Christmas. To me that feeling of expectation on the cusp of Christmas is about the feeling of time folding in on itself as all past Christmases and hopes for future Christmases collapse into a single moment on the cusp of Christmas itself and anything - even magical things - seem possible. This cosy episode includes:
* Christmas Eve traditions from listeners around the world
* A special memory of the Budapest Christmas Market
* Thoughts about gathering
* Taking a moment for gratitude
* Giving ourselves grace
* A delicious mocktail recipe
* The simplest Christmas craft project
* A special Christmas story
* Our final get ahead tips
* A Christmas message for you
With inspiration from John Matthews, Clement Clarke Moo1515115re, Chris Rea, Fiok, the team at Pentire in Cornwall, Sara Starling and Kings College Cambridge.
You can listen on iTunes/Spotify or here on Substack.
I would like to dedicate this episode to Chris Rea, whose classic Driving Home for Christmas inspired the title, and who sadly died yesterday, December 22, aged 74.
I’ll be back on December 27th with Episode 8, The Deer’s Cry: Welcoming the Hush. Until then, may you have whatever kind of Christmas you want and need this year.
Beth Xx

Lovely things for you
* Winter Writing Sanctuary (join for FREE here, runs Dec 29-Jan 4 online)
* Giveaway with a prize worth over £700 on my Instagram @bethkempton
Here are some Calm Christmas Podcast listener recommendations you might enjoy:
* Cosy reads for the dark season
* The only Christmas movie list you’ll ever need
* The Ultimate Gift Guide for Writers (including some last-minute ideas!)
Books mentioned
* The Winter Solstice by John Matthews
* The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore
* Christmas, The Bubbling Toad and the Gift by Sara Starling
Other links
* Driving Home for Christmas by Chris Rea
* Fiok stationery shop, Budapest
* How to make a Christmas tree from music manuscript paper
* Snowflake templates on marthastewart.com
* Pentire botanics
* Carols from King’s / A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Ingredients for mocktails
Pentire Seaward Eastern Fizz
* 50ml / 2 oz Pentire Seaward
* 25ml / 1 oz fresh lime juice
* 20ml 0.75 oz agave syrup
* 3 cucumber slices, muddled
* 3 mint leaves
* soda water
A Winter Wonder (easiest Christmas cocktail ever)
* Your favourite gin or non-alcholic botanical equivalent
* Your favourite tonic water
* Ice
* Slice of clementine
* Sprig of rosemary
Image: Holly Bobbins



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit calmchristmas.substack.com