How The 51st team cures the winter blues

It’s a rough time of year in D.C. The sidewalks are slippery graveyards of discarded Christmas trees, the sun sets at 5 p.m., and a polar vortex is on the way. If you’re feeling blue, you’re not alone. We love our events roundups, but we thought we’d offer a more curated (and low-cost!) list of mood-boosting activities to lift your spirits as we wait for spring’s arrival. 

Here are some ways to beat (or at least, put up a really good fight against) the winter blues, tried and tested by The 51st crew. Eric's even shared his chili recipe with you! Scroll on.

Visit the Botanic Garden

If you find yourself missing the warmth and dare I say, humidity (?) of D.C. summers, I recommend going to the U.S. Botanic Garden and simply pretending winter isn’t happening for an hour or so.

Pick a sunny day and just bask inside the glass greenhouse. You can climb the stairs to the mezzanine walkway and see the tropical canopy from above. Plus, it’s warmest up there. If humidity isn’t your style, wander around the world desert hall. (Who knew there were that many types of cacti?) The orchid room is my favorite place — it’s a rotating display of orchids in bloom. The USBG’s orchid collection has about 3,000 specimens, and there are usually about 100 on display at any given time.

Marveling at the creative brilliance of nature somehow softens my hard feelings about winter.

-Maddie

Make something hearty and warm

My favorite way to push back the winter chill, like most problems, is through food. It’s soup and stew season, baby! And for me, the easier the better. 

I love chili because if you have a crockpot, it’s two steps with easy-to-store ingredients. First, dump all the ingredients into the pot and stir together. Then, go to bed or otherwise walk away for 8-10 hours with the crockpot set to “low.” 

Everything you need can be found at your local market and most convenience stores – from Safeway to 7-Eleven: 

• 2 cans of your favorite beans, drained (to look like chili, at least one should be red kidney beans)
• 1 can of diced tomatoes (options that include roasted peppers make for a nice twist)
• 1 can of tomato paste
• 1 cup of chopped veggies (A pre-chopped pack of something fresh is a great shortcut, as are frozen vegetables. In our house it’s usually both: a container of Mirepoix and an eyeballed amount of frozen fire-roasted corn.)
• 2 tablespoons of your favorite herbs (maybe that’s from a blend you purchase; maybe it’s 1 tbsp of basil and one of oregano, for example);
• Salt, pepper, and hot sauce to taste
• Optional: a few dried bay leaves, if you've got 'em. (This addition reminds me of my mom’s cooking.)
• Optional: 1 package of ground protein (A tofu crumble or other such vegetarian option works great as an instant addition. Ground meat requires cooking ahead of use, but the beans add sufficient protein on their own.)

That recipe makes about five 1-cup servings, which is perfect for one group meal or for prepping single lunches for a week. Double or triple it as needed. And you can always be more elaborate: head to the farmers market for fresh herbs and vegetables to chop up, sprinkle some shredded cheese into your bowl when serving, or slice up a baguette for dipping.

-Eric

Crochet away

I regret to report that the people who tell you to “pick up a hobby” when you’re in a low place may be onto something – at least in the case of crochet. To me, it’s the perfect winter craft. You can go full Sleepytime Bear mode, sinking into your favorite chair, piling on a blanket, and locking in. 

If you’re feeling burned out from work or brain-rotted from screen fatigue, I’ve found crochet to be a sweet antidote; it’s comforting to feel the weight of your labor in your hands without any of the pressure to get something finished, and the monotonous looping, hooking, and pulling is like a healthier alternative to scrolling for your brain and fingers. It’s also pretty simple to pick up — there are literally millions of easy-to-follow YouTube tutorials for whatever project your heart desires. If you’re just starting out, this granny square video helped me get my footing. I’ve made this balaclava three times, these hats for my family last Christmas, this bandana-type thing, this bonnet for winter 2025, and this (don’t bring it up to him) goofy hat for my cat.

You’ll have to spend a little money on supplies (just a few hooks, scissors, and a ball of yarn will do). If you want to shop local, Looped Yarn Works in Dupont Circle is a great spot. (They also host weekly classes.) To seek community with other local yarn-heads, check out the stitching classes and events offered at various D.C. Public Library locations.

-Colleen

Go to a museum

Winter is the perfect season to check out D.C.’s wide-ranging — and mostly free — museums before spring hits and you’re consumed with rooftops, patios, and outdoor adventures. My favorites for their permanent collections and rotating exhibits are the Hirshhorn Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

If you want to venture further from the touristy National Mall, I recommend the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, the newly opened Go-Go Museum, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, the HBCU Museum, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, and the Kreeger Museum. 

Need to keep the kids busy? The National Building Museum and the National Postal Museum have kids' programming and exhibits and — of course — check out the the National Children’s Museum and the International Spy Museum. 

– Christina 

Stay inside and make it cozy

I hate winter. I hate everything about it. When I moved to Kenya, where I lived for almost a decade, I realized that winter was a choice and it was a choice I never wanted to make again. Alas, D.C. had everything else going for it so I've made some begrudging adaptations– most of which involve never leaving home.

I live in a drafty old house and I invested in this wildly effective space heater a few years ago (Wirecutter assures me this cheaper one is also reliable). Now I carry it from room to room like an oxygen tank from December through February. I also make lots of complicated soups – this Brazilian seafood stew is phenomenal as is this green curry lentil soup. Lastly, while you're supposed to repot your indoor plants in the spring I recently found that getting a big tarp and doing them in my living room in the dead of winter gave me the outdoor fix I needed, without having to leave my space heater behind.

If you must leave the house, Elle has a grilled cheese sandwich and a honeynut squash soup with aleppo crema on its menu right now that makes it almost worth it.

–Abby

Or...go outside! Early in the morning!

Listen to me: There is nothing worse you can do to yourself during the harsh winter months than fail to go outside. I realize this is in direct opposition to other advice in this post, but I speak from experience of the ill effects of too much cozy indoor time. 

The secret to surviving winter is a reasonable balance of harshness and hygge. You have to go outside and feel the cold to make the indoor time feel truly peaceful. More important than balance is sunlight: If you work indoors during the day, a morning walk is pretty much your only chance to feel an ounce of warmth from the sun. A day with zero sunlight is not a good day. 

My personal routine, when I can manage to follow my own advice, is to walk around my neighborhood for 15 - 30 minutes, depending on how tolerable I find the wind. I wear a beanie and gloves and all my fleece clothing items, and I try to get outside before I’ve even washed my face. When I need an extra pick-me-up, I buy a cappuccino and a pastry from Soleluna on Columbia Road (their pain suisse au chocolat is incredible). 

Give yourself a treat if you need the extra motivation to get yourself out the door. But for the sake of surviving February, just get out the door.

– Natalie