The Calm Christmas Podcast with Beth Kempton

***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...

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 co...

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...

Winter can be a difficult time for any of us grieving, or experiencing feelings of sadness or loneliness. And yet there is always beauty to be found in amongst it all. This week’s episode, Midwinter Light: Holding joy and sadness in December , is about allowing ourselves all the feelings, and encouraging us to take some quiet time to think about those we love and miss as the world rushes all aroun...

One of the most gorgeous carols in the world reminds us of how bleak midwinter can be, and yet how there is beauty and even comfort in it. This episode is all about taking care of ourselves in the dark season, finding ways to stay warm, inspired, healthy and connected. It includes lots of love for trees, and hedgehogs, and suggestions for wellbeing in winter from listeners and experts alike. This...

In our winter writing episode this week we are exploring the poetry of solitude and the solace of poetry. I hope you will listen somewhere quiet this week, notebook in hand, and love every moment of it. Episode 4 ‘ On This Winter’s Night’ includes: * Some beautiful wintery poems * A writing invitation inspired by the moon * Some wonderful wintery words and their meanings * The tradition of Christm...

All we really need to make our homes cosy in winter, and to make any seasonal gathering special, is a little bit of care and attention, some light, some kindness, perhaps a twinkling tree or a scattering of greenery, and maybe a pretty tablecloth. But it doesn’t have to be fancy, and it definitely doesn’t have to be perfect or all matching. Episode 3: Holly, Ivy & Evergreen is all about simplifyin...

In the old days, Christmas was much more about gathering and feasting after a long year than about gifts given and received, but in modern life Christmas shopping has become something of a frenzied affair for many, starting with the Black Friday sales and running all the way up to last minute panic buying on Christmas Eve. Not only is this stressful before Christmas, it make January harder when th...

The UK’s #1 favourite Christmas podcast is back for a fifth season of cosiness and calm, hosted by bestselling British author Beth Kempton. Here in Episode ‘Do You Hear What I Hear?’ we begin the new season of the Calm Christmas Podcast in Scotland, with the beautiful words of baker Flora Shedden, owner of Aran Bakery, which perfectly capture what us 'Keepers of Christmas' sense and love about thi...

Welcome back friends! This is the trailer for Season 5 of The Calm Christmas Podcast, the UK’s favourite festive podcast hosted by me, author Beth Kempton. Have a listen to this cosy introduction to ‘Season 5: Winterlude’ to discover all the goodness I have in store for you before Episode 1 ‘Do You Hear What I Hear?’ is released on Thursday November 13. The Calm Christmas Podcast is a hymn to the...

✨ Friends, we are here at the threshold of the year, with our final episode of Season 4 of the Calm Christmas Podcast. What an absolute joy it has been to travel through the winter with you again this year. Thank you. I hope this episode sends you into the new year with hope and anticipation for many good things ahead. Episode 9 includes: * ✨Space for dreaming, and peeking through doorways * ✨A...

✨ This quiet time between the bookends of the festive season – a time I call the Hush - is a beautiful opportunity to slow down and reflect. January will be here before we know it, after all. So, instead of rushing towards it, let’s meander for a while, giving our minds and hearts a chance to assimilate and process all that’s happened over the past twelve months. Episode 8 includes: * ✨An oracle...

✨As Christmas Eve approaches, let’s pause a moment, sense the hovering magic, and rest in the beauty of the world. This episode is, essentially, me sending you a Christmas wish. I hope you love it, and I wish you whatever kind of Christmas you want and need this year. Episode 7 includes: * ✨The most famous Christmas poem ever written * ✨A glimpse of the ocean from a wild corner of Cornwall * ✨...

✨ This is the episode where sadness is honoured, our loved ones are remembered, and we allow all the feelings, however they might arise. May it be a comfort to you in the dark season. Episode 6 includes: * The comfort of poetry * Thoughtful ideas for dealing with sadness in the dark season * A candlelight meditation * Lovely robins * London’s last lamplighters * Commonplace books * Beautiful idea...

✨Friends, we are just a couple of weeks out from Christmas now. The festive feels are all around… This episode is all about seeking delight and tiny flickers of magic in amongst the ordinariness of our daily lives. It’s about the kindness of strangers, and all the ways we can bring magic into our own worlds, and those of others. Episode 5 includes: * ✨Magical memories * ✨Being inspired by child...

Friends, December is upon us, which means meterological winter has arrived here in the northern hemisphere. This episode, Season 4 Episode 4 ‘Christmas Lights’, is all about words, because winter is my favourite time of year for writing. It’s so cosy to light a candle, read some poetry, get out your notebook and write, and I hope this episode inspires you to do just that. It’s a beautiful way to b...

Happy Thanksgiving if you are celebrating, and may it be a day of counting our blessings, for all of us, wherever we live and wherever we are from. This episode - Season 4 Episode 3, Home for the Holidays - goes out with so much gratitude for your presence in my world, for listening to the podcast and sharing your own experiences of the festive season - many of which have been woven into this seas...

This week’s episode is called Give Love This Year, gratitude and gifting, and I'm sending it out to you from my kitchen table, which is currently covered in wrapping paper, ribbon, my fabric stash, the good scissors, the silver pens, stickers, tape, stamps and ink. Let me get you a cuppa. We're going to be here for a while. This episode is full of probing questions that will help you come up with...

Here in Episode 1 Hear the Bells, 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 ·     ...

Welcome back friends! This is the trailer for the new season of Calm Christmas, the UK’s favourite festive podcast. Today I have a simple yet profound question for you to ponder in the week ahead, before Episode 1 ‘Hear the Bells’ is released on November 14. Winter is wilder than autumn. The darkness sets in long with the cold and the wet. We want to make fire light candles, huddle up, gather to e...

The UK’s #1 favourite Christmas podcast is back for a one-off special to mark the turning of the season and the gift of a leap day as winter gives way to spring. This bonus episode ‘FAREWELL WINTER’ includes: -       A beautiful ritual for bidding farewell to winter -       An insight into the tradition of ‘leap day’ -       Ideas for celebrating the arrival of spring -       A peek into Japanese...

Here we are completing another circle around the sun. We have clambered across the fabric of another year, stitched together adventures, stories, and memories, darned some holes as neatly as we could, knotted threads of new colour into our lives, and we are now here at the edge looking back across all we have woven in the past twelve months.  This is a wonderful time to focus on gratitude, to refl...

These are the days in between. The liminal space that hovers beyond the festivities and the before the arrival of a fresh New Year. I call this time 'the Hush', when the world slows and some kind of portal opens up. This episode is all about making the most of this precious time and it includes: Ideas for different ways to spend these days in between A beautiful winter visualisation to h...

It’s nearly Christmas Eve. Can you feel the magic hovering? If ever there was a time to take a deep breath and let go of all that has not been done to embrace what is here, that time is now. Pull up a chair and relax, my friend. It is Christmas, after all. This very Christmassy episode will ease you into Christmas, reminding you what really matters and encouraging you to let things be perfectly im...

This week's episode is dedicated to those we love and miss, to encourage us all – me included – to take all the time we need to feel all the things we are going to feel in the days ahead. I hope you find this episode to be a comfort.   Of course I am not going to tell you how to be or what to do as you face Christmas without a loved one, or face it carrying any other sense of grief. What I am...