**This blog is reader supported, and some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases**
Autumn is a season of transformation, when nature begins its graceful descent into quietude and rest. As the leaves turn and the air cools, it feels natural to slow down, gather close, and cultivate warmth within our homes.
Over the years, I’ve come to cherish the rhythms and rituals of this season—building traditions that are simple, yet nourishing to both body and spirit.
In our home, autumn is a time to celebrate the harvest, embrace nature’s changing beauty, and prepare for the holidays ahead.
I’d love to share a few of the ways we welcome this magical season, from cleaning and decorating to feasting and reflecting.
Celebrating the Autumn Equinox
The autumn equinox, when day and night stand in balance, feels like the perfect time to reset and prepare for the cozier months.
In our home, we celebrate by starting with a deep clean. There’s something incredibly grounding about cleansing our space before the busyness of the holidays sets in.
We open the windows, letting the crisp autumn air fill the rooms, and dust off the corners that have been untouched during the summer.
As we clean, I feel like we are preparing the home to be a warm and nurturing refuge during the colder months.
Once the house feels fresh, we bring out our autumn decorations.
Pumpkins, acorns, and golden leaves take their place on shelves and tables, reminding us of nature’s abundance.
I love to gather a few branches of colorful leaves from our yard, placing them in a vase for a simple but beautiful centerpiece.
Candles are scattered throughout the house, ready to be lit as the days grow shorter.
To mark the equinox, we prepare a simple yet hearty autumn feast, featuring roasted root vegetables, freshly baked bread, and warm apple pie.
As we gather around the table, we light a candle and recite a poem to welcome the new season.
One of our favorites is called Autumn’s Country, by Ethel Roming Fuller:
“This is Autumn’s Country
We are riding through
Stubble fields, pale golden
Sky, wild aster blue.
Goldenrod and rose haws
By the dusty road;
Water trickling wanly
Where spring freshets flowed.
Smoke from hillside clearings
Tantalizing hints
Of orchard spices – apple
Nut, and peach, and quince.
Red leaves on the maples,
Purple-clustered vines-
This is Autumn’s country;
These, its certain signs.”
These words feel like a blessing upon the season, a reminder to savor the abundance and richness of autumn and the quieter days to come.
A Waldorf-Inspired Michaelmas Celebration
Michaelmas, celebrated on September 29th, is a special day in our home.
Inspired by Waldorf traditions, it is a time to reflect on courage, strength, and the inner light that sustains us as we move into the darker half of the year.
The story of Saint Michael, who tames the dragon, symbolizes our own ability to overcome challenges with bravery and grace.
To celebrate, we have baked dragon bread—a symbolic loaf shaped into a dragon decorated with raisins and nuts for eyes and scales, reminding us of the strength and courage we carry within.
One year however, we didn’t have enough time to bake dragon bread so we decided to make dragon-shaped cookies instead, which our girls absolutely loved!
After that, it became our new tradition, and every year we bake dragon shaped cookies instead of bread.
This year we tried adapting a delicious vegan pumpkin spice sugar cookie recipe, so they truly captured the flavors of the season.
You can find the dragon shaped cookie cutter we use here.
After baking, we share stories of bravery over an autumn feast, and our girls put on a short Michaelmas play together that we have adapted from a play that I found free online here.
Making Homemade Apple Butter from Orchard-Picked Apples
One of our favorite autumn activities is spending a crisp weekend morning in my father’s 100 year old apple orchard, picking baskets of fresh apples as a family.
There’s something so special about gathering your own fruit straight from the tree, with the sun warming your face and the smell of ripe apples in the air.
Our girls run through the rows of trees, filling their baskets, munching on some of their freshly picked fruit, while we talk about how we’ll use our apples once we get home.
After a fun-filled day of picking, we often turn our apples into homemade apple butter—a rich, spiced spread that fills the house with the most comforting aroma.
Making apple butter is a slow, cozy process that perfectly fits the pace of fall.
We start by peeling and slicing the apples, then cooking them down in our slow cooker with cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.
As the apples simmer, the kitchen becomes fragrant with the sweet, warm smells of autumn.
The best part is how simple it is—once the apples are soft, we blend them into a smooth, velvety apple sauce. We set aside some to keep at this stage for eating and using in baked goods.
The rest of the sauce is cooked down in the slow cooker once more until it becomes a rich, decadent butter that we freeze in freezer bags or can in small mason jars as time allows.
This apple butter is wonderful spread on warm toast, or our favorite sourdough-discard pancakes, or even stirred into oatmeal.
We often give a few jars to friends and family as little autumn gifts, sharing the sweetness of the season.
The experience of picking the apples ourselves, then transforming them into something so delicious, makes the apple butter even more special.
It’s a tradition that feels deeply connected to the land, the season, and the slow rhythms of family life in autumn.
Of course I realized that not everyone has an organic apple orchard at their disposal, but there are many pick-your-own orchards available to the public, and if you happen to have one in your local area that you can visit, it is well worth it to share the experience as a family!
And if not? Just purchase apples at a farmer’s market or grocery store to make apple butter with!
I promise, simply smelling the aroma of the spiced apples as they waft through your home is an experience well worth enjoying.
Celebrating Martinmas with a Lantern Walk
November 11th brings the celebration of Martinmas, a festival of light that marks the transition period between autumn and winter.
Inspired by the story of Saint Martin, who shared his cloak with a beggar on a cold night, Martinmas is a time to celebrate generosity and the light we bring to the world.
One of our favorite Martinmas traditions is making lanterns. We use mason jars, covering them with autumn leaves and pressed flowers, adhered with a layer of Mod Podge.
Click here to find a good Mod Podge decoupage kit
Once the lanterns dry, we place little LED tea lights inside and carry them on a lantern walk at dusk.
As we walk together through the early evening, the glow of our lanterns reminds us of the warmth and light we carry within, even as the days grow shorter.
This simple ritual of light feels especially meaningful as we approach winter, helping us to reflect on kindness and the ways we can bring light into the world.
Read more about celebrating Martinmas and links to our favorite leaf lantern craft tutorials here
Creating a Thanksgiving Gratitude Tree
As Thanksgiving approaches, we love to create a gratitude tree—a beautiful, interactive way to reflect on all the blessings in our lives.
We gather bare branches and arrange them in a pot, creating a simple tree shape. Then, we cut out paper leaves in shades of orange, red, and yellow, on which we write words of gratitude.
Each family member takes time to reflect on the things they are thankful for, and we hang the leaves on the branches, turning our tree into a vibrant display of love and appreciation.
The gratitude tree stays in our home throughout November, and we often add new reflections as they come to mind.
It’s a wonderful visual reminder of all the things we cherish, big and small.
Find my Gratitude Tree tutorial here.
These autumn traditions have become such a nourishing part of our family’s rhythm, grounding us in the beauty of the season and bringing us closer together.
As we clean, bake, create, and celebrate, we are not just marking time—we are weaving a tapestry of love and warmth that will sustain us through the colder months.
I hope these ideas inspire you to create your own autumn rituals, filling your home and heart with the simple joys of the season.
~xo