"In your head it is all frosty walks, fires and toasting marshmallows but turns out to be cold and wet, washing hung up round the house and massive fuel bills."
^^ this
"Charlie is this "smells of bonfires in the air, coming in from the cold to a warm fire, Christmas lights, warm snuggly boots, woolly scarves." really your experience of winter? The number of times that lot applies could be counted on the fingers of - um - one finger, I think! It sounds lovely, but actually it's windy, wet and expensive. Snow is inconvenient and (even in the country) spends more time slushy and brown than pretty. How many bonfires do your neighbours have anyway? What on earth do they find to burn?"
and ^^this.
I hate it when my neighbours have bonfires. They only seem to have them when I have my washing out. We were severely disrupted by the snow last winter/spring, and winter here is always cold and damp. We get very few crisp, frosty sunny days.
I find Christmas over rated, I hate being stuck indoors for days and days on end, I hate the low light levels because they leave me feeling low and out of sorts, I hate the long nights and short days. I hate having to wear several layers to keep warm and spending ages getting togged up to go outside in the snow. And I hate being cold more than anything else.
The only good thing about winter is that TV tends to get better