Winter Blessings and Beauties, Day 19: Winter Music

Music taps into our memories and emotions with the same immediacy as fragrances do. So I rather like the idea of creating seasonal playlists with those pieces of music that for whatever reason bring back memories or evoke feelings of spring, summer, autumn and winter. 

For a winter playlist, the obvious choices are all those Christmas songs that become inescapable in the lead-up to the end of December, but I'd like to think more broadly than that - a winter playlist that evokes not just one festival but the whole season. 

What songs or pieces of music make you think of winter when you hear them? It may be pop hits that were in the charts during the colder months, classical pieces which evoke winter (such as 'Winter' from Vivaldi's Four Seasons, or Debussy's 'The Snow is Dancing'), or pieces of music that just 'sound' cold and icy, like 'Somebody That I Used to Know' by Gotye. Or perhaps there's a song that always puts a smile on your face when you hear it because it reminds you of a treasured winter memory. 

Here are a few of my favourite pieces of winter music which always put me in a seasonal mood - some are specifically about winter, but some just 'feel' like winter to me. Which songs would it be for you?

• 'Valley Winter Song' by Fountains of Wayne
• 'Northern Lights' by Renaissance
• 'Fairytale' by Enya
• 'The Reach' by Dan Fogelberg   
• 'River' by Joni Mitchell
• 'White Winter Hymnal' by Fleet Foxes
• 'Somewhere Only We Know' by Keane
• 'Porcelain' by Moby
• 'Wintersong' by Sarah MacLachlan
• 'Sleeping Satellite' by Tasmin Archer
• 'Sometimes' by Erasure

Winter Blessings and Beauties: Day 19

Winter Music

Immerse yourself in the season by creating a playlist of your favourite winter music. Listen to it snuggled under a blanket by the fire, or while you're out on a winter walk, let it sink into your bones and inspire your winter dreams...