The Yiddish word haimish means cozy, homey, comfortable. It’s an adjective describing a noun, giving more information about a person, place or thing. 

The word inspires a great approach to this cold, gloomy season. You’ve heard of Hot Girl Summer. We’re going to start Haimish Girl Winter. (Guys and nonbinary folks, you can join in, too.) 

Our goals include staying warm while being cool, looking cute and nourishing our bodies with comfort foods and our souls with low-key indoor activities to hit the height of coziness.

Let’s start with our signature Haimish Girl Winter hobby —   staying home and snuggling in bed, covering up with a soft blanket and wearing fuzzy socks while reading books and binging shows. It’s the perfect way to spend our free time, especially after a long day’s work, when we just need some cheese and quiet. 

We can reach our Hamish Girl Winter nutritional goals by cooking soups, mashed potatoes and casseroles, preferably all served at the same meal. Three cheers for comfort food! Fire up the crockpot, people. Your family will love this hobby. You’ll be a hero. An apron is pretty much just a cape worn backwards. 

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of videos from very reliable news sources such as TikTok and Instagram Reels about the winter trend of wearing “sets” — lounge sets, travel sets, errand running sets. 

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A set is simply a monochromatic outfit consisting of stretchy soft pants and a loose top. Basically, pajamas but cute enough to wear in public. Do we need this for Haimish Girl Winter? Are we not wearing old sweatpants and our husband’s ancient fraternity T-shirt anymore? When you get home from the outside world are you supposed to change from day clothes to a matchy matchy lounge set to read on the couch? Don’t go to the grocery store in your joggers or jeans anymore. You need a solid color errand running set to be fashionable. 

Why do these popular sets have to be monochromatic? That’s only a good look for one very specific person: actress Judith Light in her groundbreaking role as Angela Bower on “Who’s the Boss?” Ay-oh. Oh-ay.

I’m concerned that if I wear a light pink set, I will look like a Hostess Snowball. Remember those? Nobody ever chose a Snowball when a Ding Dong or a Ho Hos was around. The Snowball was chocolate cake covered in a layer of marshmallow and pink dyed coconut. You could peel the marshmallow coconut layer off and eat it separately or place it on a stuffed animal as a sticky yet delicious yarmulke. 

I wish they made Garanimals for adults. Remember those? The guesswork was done for you by matching the animals on the tag. Lion tag shirts looked good with lion tag pants. Duck tag shirts looked good with duck tag pants. No one would wear a lion tag shirt with duck tag pants unless they were a monster or a fashion rule breaker living on the edge of avant-garde status. Having Garanimals was like having a personal stylist. 

Whatever you’re wearing, eating or doing, the most important part of Haimish Girl Winter is coziness. Unlike other goals, we’re not going to try to get out of our comfort zone. Instead, we are going to ease our way into an even comfier zone. Now that’s a goal I can commit to. 

I predict we’ll have great success achieving a Haimish Girl Winter. It’ll give us the reset we need before the weather gets warmer and we get superbusy with Mahj Girl Spring. 

Columnist Amy Fenster Brown is  married to Jeff and has two teenage sons, Davis and Leo. She volunteers for several Jewish not-for-profit groups. Fenster Brown is an Emmy Award-winning TV news writer and counts time with family and friends, talking and eating peanut butter among her hobbies.

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