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There is something about Gilmore Girls that feels permanently connected to autumn.

Maybe it is Stars Hollow with its little-town charm, changing leaves and endless community events. Maybe it is Rory surrounded by books and beautiful old academic buildings. Or perhaps it is simply all those cups of coffee, cosy jumpers, pumpkins, movie nights and slightly chaotic conversations.

Add the renewed love for 2000s style and nostalgia, and a Gilmore Girls-inspired autumn feels particularly appealing right now.

Of course, most of us don’t live in a picturesque Connecticut town where there seems to be a festival every other weekend. But you don’t need to recreate Stars Hollow—or spend a fortune travelling to New England—to borrow some of its autumn atmosphere.

Here are 14 simple ways to bring a little American fall and Gilmore Girls spirit into your own autumn.

Table of Contents

1. Find Your Own Version of Luke’s

You don’t need an actual American diner.

Find a local café you enjoy and make it your occasional autumn breakfast spot. Somewhere small and independent is especially nice—the sort of place where you can sit with a coffee, watch people come and go and perhaps become a familiar face yourself.

Alternatively, create a Luke’s-inspired breakfast at home. Make pancakes, eggs and toast, pour yourself a generous mug of coffee and take your time over breakfast for once.

No backwards baseball cap required.

2. Take a Coffee and an Autumn Book Outside

Rory rarely seems far away from either a book or a cup of coffee, and the combination works particularly well in autumn.

Fill a travel mug, choose something from your autumn reading list and head to a park, garden or quiet outdoor spot.

It doesn’t have to be sunny. A slightly chilly afternoon, fallen leaves and an oversized jumper might actually improve the experience.

3. Find Your Own “Study Tree”

If you remember Rory’s determination to study beneath the perfect tree, why not find one of your own?

Look for a tree in your local park, woodland, university grounds or another peaceful green space where you could sit with a book or notebook.

It doesn’t literally have to become a study spot. Use it for reading, journaling, thinking or simply sitting quietly for twenty minutes.

You might even return to the same tree throughout autumn and watch the surroundings change.

4. Have a Proper Movie Night

Lorelai and Rory take movie nights extremely seriously—and so can you.

Choose an old favourite, a film you’ve somehow never seen, or something from the early 2000s. Turn off unnecessary distractions, get comfortable and make some favourite snacks.

You don’t, however, need to reproduce the enormous quantities of junk food consumed in Gilmore Girls.

Borrow the fun ritual rather than the questionable nutritional decisions.

5. Browse a Second-Hand Bookshop

Few things fit the Rory Gilmore side of autumn better than spending an afternoon surrounded by books.

Visit a second-hand bookshop, independent bookseller, charity shop with a good book section or a local book fair. Give yourself permission to browse without knowing exactly what you’re looking for.

You might come home with a classic you’ve always intended to read, an old mystery, a strange forgotten novel—or nothing at all.

Browsing is part of the outing.

6. Create an Autumn Reading List

Instead of an intimidating list of books you think you should read, make one you’re genuinely excited about.

Mix serious books with easy ones. Add a classic, a mystery, a campus novel, an old favourite and something completely frivolous.

You could even make yourself a tiny seasonal challenge: five books before winter, for example.

The point isn’t to become Rory Gilmore. It’s simply to make reading feel like one of autumn’s pleasures rather than another task to complete.

7. Visit a Beautiful University Town

One of the pleasures of Gilmore Girls is its academic atmosphere—from Chilton to Yale.

Fortunately, you don’t need to travel to an Ivy League campus to enjoy old buildings, libraries, courtyards and autumn trees.

If you’re in Britain, Oxford and Cambridge are obvious choices, but there are beautiful university buildings and historic campuses in many other towns and cities too.

Spend a day wandering, have coffee somewhere atmospheric, browse a bookshop and enjoy pretending you’re living your own slightly less stressful version of campus life.

8. Borrow a Little 2000s Autumn Style

You don’t need a complete Y2K wardrobe makeover.

Instead, look again at some of the uncomplicated autumn pieces associated with the era: cable-knit jumpers, plaid, denim, corduroy, loafers, simple coats and long scarves.

You may already own half of what you need.

Rather than buying an entirely new “aesthetic,” see whether something forgotten at the back of your wardrobe suddenly feels interesting again.

9. Find Your Local Version of a Stars Hollow Event

Stars Hollow residents seem capable of inventing a festival for almost anything.

Look at what’s happening around you this autumn: harvest festivals, apple days, farmers’ markets, food festivals, book fairs, heritage events, village celebrations or seasonal fairs.

Smaller local events are particularly suitable. They may lack Stars Hollow’s gazebo and terrifyingly enthusiastic town meetings, but they often have exactly the slightly eccentric community atmosphere we’re looking for.

10. Make Something With Apples or Pumpkin

American fall and pumpkins are almost inseparable, but you don’t have to put pumpkin spice into everything you consume.

Try pumpkin soup, cinnamon pancakes, baked apples, apple and blackberry cake, pumpkin bread or simply an autumn coffee.

Using whatever is actually seasonal and easy to find where you live makes more sense than forcing yourself to reproduce somebody else’s version of autumn.

11. Spend an Afternoon Somewhere Full of Books

This is slightly different from book shopping.

Go to your local library, a reading room or a bookshop café and simply stay for a while.

Take a notebook. Read a magazine. Browse a section you don’t normally visit. Write something. Do a little work if you really want to.

Sometimes changing the place where you spend an ordinary afternoon is enough to make the day feel different.

12. Make an Ordinary Autumn Day Feel Like an Episode

You don’t need an elaborate itinerary.

Walk into town instead of driving if you can. Get a coffee. Browse some books. Notice the strange window display in a local shop. Sit in the park. Buy something nice for dinner. Come home and watch a film.

Part of the appeal of fictional places such as Stars Hollow is that ordinary things seem interesting there.

But ordinary things can be interesting where you live too—you just have to pay enough attention to notice them.

13. Browse Antique and Junk Shops

An old-fashioned antique centre or wonderfully cluttered junk shop feels completely at home in the slightly eccentric world of Gilmore Girls.

Look for antique shops, flea markets, vintage stores, charity shops or reclamation places nearby and spend some time browsing.

Old crockery, books, pictures, furniture and mysterious objects with no immediately obvious purpose are often much more entertaining to look at than rows of identical new things.

And you don’t need to buy anything.

Think of it as treasure hunting.

14. Rediscover 2000s Pop and Rock

If the renewed interest in Gilmore Girls is making you nostalgic for the era as well as the series, take the nostalgia beyond clothes.

Make yourself an early-2000s playlist.

You don’t have to recreate the show’s soundtrack. Instead, rediscover the pop, indie and rock songs you remember from the period—including the ones you haven’t heard for years and are surprised to discover you still know every word to.

Play it while walking through autumn leaves, cooking, driving or spending a rainy afternoon at home.

Sometimes music brings an era back more effectively than any carefully recreated aesthetic.

You Don’t Need to Live in Stars Hollow

Perhaps that’s the nicest part of a Gilmore Girls-inspired autumn.

You don’t actually need the perfect New England town, an Ivy League education, an enormous wardrobe or a seemingly unlimited coffee budget.

Take the parts that appeal to you.

Read under a tree. Find a café you love. Visit an eccentric little local event. Wear an old jumper. Browse second-hand books. Make apple cake. Listen to music you haven’t heard in twenty years. Take your coffee outside while the leaves are changing.

And leave the rest in Stars Hollow.

Your autumn doesn’t need to look exactly like anybody else’s to be worth looking forward to.

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