12 Days of Naturism - December - A Naturist World Community Day 

As part of ANW's want to enhance understanding and appreciation of naturism we are sharing a selection of articles and interviews with ANW members exploring naturism. ANW believes in safeguarding naturism with a genuine, healthy and respectful approach to social nudity and in doing so has an ever growing membership of friendly and appropriate users.

We also believe that naturism unites us and connects us. Beyond national boundaries, age, gender, religion sexual orientation and culture. These articles aim to show how naturists are connected through a mutual respect and understanding of social nudity. Inspiring people to get involved with naturism and the various naturist opportunities the world has to offer. 

The end of the 12 Days of Naturism Year

When we considered the final theme for the 12 Days of Naturism we felt we should end the journey with something capturing the spirit of naturism and why we created the 12 days. The theme 12 months earlier in January considered the value of communicating with Naturist Information Day. We end the year celebrating the true purpose of everything we have shared since with A Naturist World Community Day falling on the solstice of December 21.

From February to November we have encouraged naturists to consider aspects of naturism that all can consider as part of their naturist year: working naked, world awareness, sports and exercise, gardening, hiking, swimming, art and photography, using beaches, cooking and dining, holistic health and wellness. December's theme (during a month already connected with being more caring and social than usual) reminds us that everything we celebrated through the year would not really be possible without a thriving naturist community, and a lot less meaningful. It is community that allows us to enjoy time naked without being lone, eccentric, oddballs. Much of society may not understand naturism and be wary of it, but there are many millions of naturists around the world ensuring we are never completely alone. They give us hope that naturism will continue to grow and become more widely appreciated.

Do we really need community?

It can be easy to think that naturism can be enjoyed in your own way, that we can all go off and do our own thing, and that we no longer need naturist communities. We can have wonderful and rewarding times enthused purely by our own lust for adventure. However we shouldn't imagine that all naturists can be islands, even if the islands are edged with white sand and palm trees! We need the existence of a naturist community to enable others to have a world that allows them as individuals the luxury to go “off piste.”

The idea of community may even seem old fashioned. “I am not a joiner!” appears as common a thought as “I don't want to be labelled.” Accepting words like naturism is not about placing yourself into a box of carbon copy people, it is about allowing the world to recognise that spending time naked has a social acceptance with a defining set of fair and positive ideals. Naturist communities have long provided the invaluable service of ensuring naturism stays on target and continues to be a family friendly life choice worthy of being enjoyed by all. To illustrate their own feelings about the value of community and how it should work RnR wrote about The Core Tree of A Community another valuable blog they shared on this subject is Community Focused 

Community is something we all need

In reality, we are all joiners, no matter how defiant we want to be. We join communities all the time, we just don't think about it. The internet is populated by “joiners” but uses words like “followers” and “subscribers.” If we decide to share our naturism on the internet then we are joining others that do the same, and no doubt joining various websites while doing that. So we certainly shouldn't consider the idea of being part of a naturist community as an outmoded experience. We have always considered ANW to be much more than a website that people can use to find information. It is a community, a club, a family.

Community in Action

Last August the four of us went to Manchester Sun and Air Society, and we were reminded first hand of the huge value of these small landed communities: the grounds, facilities and activities, the ability to stay in a country space where you can be naked without question, and most vitally: the social aspect. This is a home away from home for members (for some this has been the case for as long as they can remember), and everyone was so friendly, helpful and attentive. Where but in the naturist community could we expect to be so welcomed as a family? We wrote an article about The Importance of Naturist Clubs on our return. These communities are like large extended families, and for some these connections are the families they do not have or better than the families they do have! It was a wonderful thing to experience the Friday night communal pizza evening. Dozens of old friends laughing and chatting, sharing a communal dining experience: a common activity through history, but rare today. In a world where we often feel surrounded by strangers, naturist clubs offer members a secure space, building relationships that can last for decades, offering quality time respecting the environment, each other and the club's history. RnR wrote about how important they find communal socialising with naturism by being In The Crowd.

A long tradition

The naturist community is one that has a history worth celebrating, a journey that has given us the ability to enjoy naturism in the various ways we do today!

December is a time of celebrating much loved and highly valued traditions. Traditions that despite the passing of time are still important and valid in the 21^st century. A perfect time for us to remember that traditional ideas of naturism are not outmoded simply because of age, and the value of naturist communities are maybe stronger than ever. It is the sense of community that gives naturism its strength and also allows it to shine out in a world that too often appears rather tarnished.

The ANW Community

When we created A Naturist World our idea was to replicate the environment of a welcoming and respectful community that feels like a naturist club; albeit one that is on the internet, global and currently heading to 15,000 members. Daily pages visits on ANW average around 160,000 with it becoming increasing common for days to see twice this amount - the current high being 368,000 at the end of October 2025. Each fortnight we send out Community Newsletters. Each year we write the ANW Mission Statement (the latest is here: Mission Statement 2025-2026  and have campaigns that we use on and off ANW. The current one is Naturism – The Natural Choice  which also includes links back to previous campaigns Get Real with Naturism, Nurturing Naturism For Everyone For Ever  and Get Back to Naturism. There are fun ways that the community can work together. In lovely example are the various Interactive Projects allowing everyone to share images and thoughts to take part in multiple entry articles on different themes. There are Community Polls  to vote in to create a picture of how the community feels on different topics, and for those who want to debate at length on all things naturist there is The Forum with over 300 different topics and the joy of sharing Albums  within a real naturist community there are currently 41500 photographs shared by ANW-ers.

We want ANW to be somewhere people can feel safe and “at home,” where friendships can be forged, last for many years, and taken successfully beyond ANW. We also want ANW to present genuine naturism, naturism with strong family values and honest respect, naturism with equality and proper inclusion. A naturist experience that is proud to be Celebrating Families and understands that we cannot afford not to. The community protects each other, naturism and ANW from misuse. We support each other through the bad times, and celebrate the good times. When the winter is at its most depressing, there is always someone who shares the sun from their part of the world. We join in various activities, debate topics, share knowledge, experiences, daily life, holiday snaps and so much more. Like landed clubs, new members are welcomed by experienced members, some members are organisers and create activity, others are quieter and happy to go with the flow. What is really important is offering people a feeling of being connected: particularly when some ANW-ers live in countries and areas with no naturist opportunities, or are home naturists for other reasons. There is great value in the feeling of belonging to a community that is respectful of individuals and naturism. Marc relates to this in Why I'm Here – The Power of the ANW Community In My Naturist Journey and RnR shared their reasons for being part of ANW in A Naturists Connection and Jack P gave readers his take on why he is part of ANW with Memories of ANW 2019 to 2025. 

The ANW community does not wish to Promote Naturism to Women at the expense of diminishing the importance and value of welcoming men and recognises that the genders have much more in common and are not so divided as the modern world may want us to think. Rather than Venus and Mars we suggest that naturism should see that Men Are From Earth Women Are From Earth. 

A valuable service

Those lone travellers who are not natural joiners have the option through ANW to still feel part of a community. There are many naturists who are not able to join a local club (maybe because of their location, maybe because of being in an “unwanted single male” situation, maybe because the don't like the way the club is run). There are similar problems faced by individuals when considering joining a national body. Maybe they do not have one to join, maybe they do not like some of the decisions they see being made or find the environment unwelcoming or not to their liking. The ANW Survey in 2023 showed that 75% of ANW were not part of a landed club, 52% were not part of a non-landed club, 50% were not members of a national body and 34% didn't visit beaches (with the majority quoting distance as the main reason). The ANW community therefore offers many members the ability to be part of something when their own options are limited, and yet continues to offer those who have various other naturist connections the ability to make more connections and share their experiences with others. Importantly we welcome everyone. How could we not? Individuals, couples, families – the old and the young – naturism and ANW is here for everyone. From those that have been part of a landed club or their national body for many decades, to those who are only just learning about what naturism really is about. From those that have travelled the world to those that have not started their naturist journey yet. Colin The Nude Cyclist wrote about the importance of ANW to him as his Virtual Home Away From Home. 

To help naturists with their journey ANW has a huge area of over 4000 pages of naturist opportunities (beach, holidays, landed and non-landed clubs, wellness experiences, events, national and regional bodies, and much more) encouraging and inspiring those who are looking to grow their naturism and through the Enterprise Members of ANW there is the ability to get to know the representatives of some of these opportunities, ask questions, build confidence and use their services with the knowledge that it is right for you. Personal experience and word of mouth through the community can help with these decisions with Ratings/Reviews, Blogs, Groups and Forum topics offering first hand knowledge.

At ANW we also want to encourage naturist community meet ups all over the world. Individuals connecting with ANW friends: like RnR recalling Meeting A&S and Family or UKChris and Sheena meet up in Costa Rica with Gustavo and Sheena showing how Virtual Friends Can Become A Reality on ANW. Location based Groups organising larger Meet Ups. The Get-Togethers area of The Forum.

To help people learn about naturism ANW has lots of blogs and articles designed to explain what naturism is and isn't. From simple factual guides to philosophical thought processes. Personal stories and interviews explore every nuance of the joy of naturism through articles, blogs, interviews, podcasts, videos, Interactive Projects and more. The Public Articles initiative even means that those who are unsure about signing into a naturist website can learn about naturism in a series of articles and interviews without logging into ANW. These learning experiences aimed at growing a greater understanding and appreciation of naturism have had over a million reads and illustrate a great pride and passion for naturism from this naturist community. Colin The Nude Cyclist recounts his experience and applauds the Public Article idea with Public Interviews Do Work.

One of the public articles - this has currently had 35000 reads. 

Celebrating Naturism

We should want to celebrate the naturist community as a whole, and all the various communities that exist big and small. Naturist Community Day is a wonderful way to end a year full of reasons to enjoy naturism. Embracing the idea that we are not a random bunch of strangers who are looking for excuses to undress, but part of a legitimate and organised life choice supported and united by venues, clubs, national organisations, and of course the ANW global community.

Joining the ANW community

ANW is all about community – whether you are here to make friends, read blogs and articles, share photographs or research you next holiday – ANW exists to grow naturism and the naturist community all around the world. There are many ways that you can enjoy being part of the ANW community. Marc recently wrote of one fun aspect of being part of ANW: the credit system. As Marc reached VIP status he explored the reasons Why every member should shoot for it. Credits are automatically generated by various activity around ANW but there are also some Extra Ways Of Earning ANW Credits. 

ANW Credit Badge Levels

The 7 Heavens of ANW encourage community interaction every day. Colin the Nude Cyclist reminded us that Recognition is Important in inspirational blog about the value of Sunday Sharing saying thanks to all those you comment, like and write Reviews/Rating around ANW. Each week one Reviewer is also awarded 50 extra credits for becoming the Reviewer of the Week.

Virtual Meets allow naturist friends to come into your home via ANW as another part of our connections as a community. Marc's blog on the subject explains Why ANW Virtual Meets Matter and Why You Should Join If You Can 

Another feature of the ANW Community is the Podcasts area. Created by the community for the community these podcasts exist thanks to the effort of RnR. Marc so enjoyed “My Experience Recording A Podcast with Robin and Rin” that he wrote a follow up blog. 

In reality every blog, every article, every post and activity on ANW is about community. We reach out to each other by sharing and we are thanked by views, likes, comments, friendships and reviews. The blogs alone are dramatically varied from the deeply personal – showing great trust in each other - to the tackling of big questions- showing great trust in the community. To the, joyous, fun and adventurous – reminding us why we became naturists in the first place. Like those traditional landed clubs that have been with us for the best part of a century, many of us feel that we know each other and we feel like we share aspects of each others lives and journeys rather than simply being “online friends.” Many ANW-ers followed our blog as A Naturist Family and joined this community alongside us when we launched it in May 2020. Our own journey continues with a few hundreds blogs and articles that we have placed in some sort of chronological list in Our Suggested Reading Order this alone some would consider enough to fill a naturist website with (and many followers fund such simple blogging sites), but ANW is much more than that and the feeling of connectivity, equality and community has allowed many other members to share their experiences, their thoughts, their adventures, their lives, their worries and heartaches, their frustrations and laughter. For ANW is populated by a true community of genuine naturists who share their passion for being here and being naturists.

The ANW community exists for you and exists because of you. We need your support through Membership Subscriptions and Donations to cover the various monthly, yearly and one off expenses and also go some way to covering the many thousands of hours we have devoted to building this community since it launched in May 2020 and the four years planning and building it prior to that. Your support in this matter can not be underestimated. The community relies on you. Just as any club needs those that use it to help fund it. We work on ANW 365 days a year and average 100 hours a week between the two of us. Marc upon upgrading wrote a blog “Why I Took Life Membership of ANW” 

The ANW Community Moving On - Building a Future For Naturism

The circle continues. 2025 comes to an end as does this cycle of the 12 Days of Naturism. 2026 will see ANW continue to grow as a community and share its passion for naturism. The 12 Days of Naturism will start again with Naturist Information Day, and we will continue to encourage the best knowledge about naturism to be shared around the world. As well as look at new ways to entertain, educate and encourage the ANW community to flourish and grow in the New Year and beyond. The bigger the ANW community becomes the better it is for all ANW members and naturism as a whole.

ANW welcomes all who are respectful and interested in naturism and invite all genuine naturist organisations, clubs, events, venues and other opportunities to be part of the ANW community and work with us to encourage the growth and acceptance of naturism around the world. If you have any questions email Anna and Steve at [email protected]


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