4 ideas for Christian parents feeling low as the days get darker

As the nights draw in, we can want to hibernate and wake up in spring - Dawn Kay suggest 4 ways to keep going if it feels tough this autumn

Have you noticed how the dark nights and dark mornings have crept in much quicker than usual this year? Maybe it’s an age thing. The older I get, the faster time seems to move. Or maybe it’s that the weather has been so relentlessly miserable lately that those crisp, golden autumn days where sunlight filters through orange leaves and lifts your soul have been few and far between during 2025.

As the end of October approaches, so does daylight saving time. The clocks go back an hour, and we all brace ourselves for that sudden shift when the evenings seem to disappear altogether. In the weeks leading up to it, daylight actually decreases by about four or five minutes each day. That means on a Monday the sun might set at 5:30pm, and by Friday it could be dipping below the horizon just after 5:00pm. That’s a big change in one week! No wonder our bodies and minds struggle to keep up!

I don’t know about you, but I find this stretch of the year from the children going back to school in September until I put the Christmas tree up at the end of November, the hardest

I don’t know about you, but I find this stretch of the year from the children going back to school in September until I put the Christmas tree up at the end of November, the hardest. I feel as though I’m crawling through it. The warmth of summer feels like a lifetime ago, and all I want to do ……