Tea Party (Q&A 11: Winter Favorites)

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Hi, fam! We hope you’re extra cozy for today’s tea party. We’re sharing our favorite things about winter, so it’s perfectly alright if you’re wrapped in blanket burrito. No judgement here.

Do you have any winter traditions?

Pineapple:

I don’t really have any particular winter traditions! I just like to spend it with the people that I love and exchange gifts and go out and look at the pretty decorations. When I was a kid, my family used to all gather at my grandmother’s house, but now we’re all a lot more lowkey. We usually do something at home and do Christmas presents on Christmas. There is a turkey soup we always eat, and on New Years we make and eat egg rolls. Other than that, I just try to stay warm and enjoy my time.

Raspberry:

Usually, my winter traditions involve baking too many cookies for a single person to eat, watching White Christmas a million times, finding new holiday movies to watch obsessively, decorating a Christmas tree, and… hiding inside with hot chocolate or tea because I do not thrive in cold weather.

Apple:

If I didn’t already break out the hoodies in fall, I’m definitely wearing them in winter. Spring might be my favorite season, but hoodie season is also pretty up there. Aside from that, I don’t know if the rest of my traditions can be narrowed down to just winter. I celebrate Christmas, and, uh, you know how there are those people that, like, won’t shut up about how it’s the most wonderful time of year all year long? And everyone is like, “Be quiet! Let us have Halloween! Take your lights down—it’s February! You want me to have a ‘holly jolly Christmas’ in July, bruh?” I am that menace. I’m sorry.

What are your favorite winter books and movies?

Pineapple:

I don’t know if I have any favorite Winter books, really. I do want to read a lot more classics in the Winter, though. I don’t know why, but if Autumn is Raspberry’s Dark Academia season, then Winter is mine! Something about the fashion, probably. I have Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Macbeth to read, and a copy of A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens on my shelf waiting to be read. I also picked up a big anthology of poetry and I was gifted a Richard Siken poetry collection, so… I’ve got my work cut out for me to read.
As for movies, I don’t know if there’s anything I have to watch during the holiday season. I tend to go for American classics though, like It’s a Wonderful Life and A Charlie Brown Christmas. A Christmas Story is another one that’s pretty much on at least once a season, along with The Bishop’s Wife.

Raspberry:

White Christmas is at the top of the list because I’ve watched it every December since I was a kid. The costumes, the dances, the songs,… it’s just so nostalgic and I’m obsessed every year. I also really loved Dash and Lily, but to be honest I’m usually a sucker for most Christmas movies. I feel like it’s the one genre of movie/book where people can throw alllll the tropes in and I’m just like “yup, seems realistic.” Please send me recs because my bookshelf needs more holiday romances (maybe one day I’ll add those to my ‘to be written’ list).

Apple:

Rather than a specific book, my sister and I will read and swap any books we get for Christmas with each other, so we both get to read them and talk about them together. It’s the same way with movies, except we do that with the whole family. If anyone gets a movie for Christmas, we all settle in and get cozy to watch it.

Do you have any favorite winter tropes? What about least favorite?

Pineapple:

Other than the inevitably of death and the symbol that everything ends but will begin anew in the spring, um…
The Hallmark tropes? They’re so cheesy and romantic but I kind of love it. So overdone but they’re so easy to get pulled into for like an hour and a half. They’re so cute. I love the magic of Christmas and true love. BUT I will say I’m not a fan if there’s an underlying cheating storyline going on. Just be honest with your partner!
I also just love the trauma of Winter. Like oh, the power’s out and we have to huddle for warmth? Yeah, I lived that and I never want to live through it again and I’m lowkey afraid we will again in February or March BUT can fictional characters deal with it? Of course they can, poor things. Getting snowed in and now I have to spend the holiday with my grinch of an archnemesis? Ugh, hope we don’t fall in love. Classic. I love it.

Raspberry:

Okay, so I know I just gushed over winter/holiday movies, but I can’t stand the ‘city girl goes to country, is useless at everything, and falls for country boy who fixes everything while being snarky to her.’ I just. Can’t. Especially in a day and age when Google exists, what do you mean you can’t figure out how to turn on the gas stove, Miss Corporate Superstar? The helpless girl trope needs to stop. Or reverse it. Show me a country guy trying to work a ticket kiosk and breaking it but in a quirky way. I am a sucker for ‘the one that’s been here the whole time’ tropes, and those always seem to thrive in holiday movies, though. More of that please.

Apple:

I’m a sucker for that stuck-at-the-airport trope that usually pops up in fanfiction oneshots around this time of year. Snowball fights are also a classic. Decorating the Christmas tree together is always so cute. Oh! And that I-was-caught-in-this-storm-and-nearly-froze trope! With a dash of there-was-only-one-bed and huddling-for-warmth. A lot of winter tropes are really fall tropes, but make it dangerous, huh?

What’s your favorite winter activity?

Pineapple:

I think Winter is so pretty, even though Summer is my favorite season! I really just like going out to look at the decorations stores put out and looking at the lights. I like holiday shopping so I get to go out and see all the pretty things. I really like shopping in person more than online shopping, but I might end up doing online this year again because of time constraints and the new COVID variant. One of my other favorite activities is just cuddling underneath my heated blanket with my cat and sleeping.

Raspberry:

Other than listening to Christmas music on a loop, I usually like staying inside. I loved looking at Christmas lights when I was in the US, but there aren’t many lights where I live now. Or, rather, there are lots of lights, but those are lit up literally all year round so it takes away some of the magic.

Apple:

A lot of people get time off work around this time of year, so I love being able to catch up with friends and family. Quality time is my top love language, so anytime someone asks what I want for Christmas, I’m like, “Your face.” But, like, still attached to them, of course. Even though a lot of our time together is online nowadays for safety reasons, it still means the world to me.

Happy holidays!

Whatever you celebrate, we hope the rest of your year is wonderful. Share your winter favorites and traditions with us in a comment below or on twitter, and we’ll see you next time!