To wonder if those who love winter have very robust mental health or very happy lives?

[Comedycook]

So I was thinking about this after reading a thread about weather. Lots of posters saying how they loved winter...some even said they love the dark evenings and what really surprised me was the poster who said they loved dark, cold mornings. I assumed everyone hated these!

Now I'm not in a terrible place mentally and I'm not depressed but I do find the dark, rainy, cold days do affect my mood. When the evenings are warm and light I feel so much happier.

I'm really interested in how others don't feel that the winter brings them down and actually enjoy it. Are they naturally happier, more positive type people?

Depends how you define hot. Anything over about 20 degrees is my threshold for feeling comfortable. But I know I am an outlier, my idea of perfect weather is deep snow cover and temperatures hovering around 0 degrees! I need to move back to Scandinavia clearly!

Sounds like you need to move @RampantIvy . Life is too short!

Indeed, but there are other factors keeing me here right now @43ontherocksporfavor

I don't see dark evenings as depressing. To me they are a romantic time where I can light my fireplace and sit in front of it with a hot cocoa and big woolly socks, feeling christmassy. I feel warm and romantic.

Blimey. There are a lot of hot chocolate drinkers on here. If I drank the amount of hot chocolate that the winter lovers do I would be the size of a house.

I'm interested in how some people can actively enjoy something that makes others so miserable?

I hate going to bed in summer when it's still light and it makes me sleep too light. How can dome people actively enjoy something that makes others so miserable?

Works both ways

There’s this amazing invention called a sleep mask. (And black out curtains.).

But it’s dark in the summer by my bedtime and I love waking up in the light rather than dark.

I love winter because I love all seasons and the changes they bring - the cycle of the year. I associate winter with frosty walks, log fires, making soups and casseroles, curling up on the sofa under a blanket to read a novel or watch box sets or films without any feeling of guilt that I ought to be outside enjoying the sunshine.

And I love how Christmas falls at the grimmest, darkest time of year so we are distracted by feasts and parties and twinkling lights, catching up with friends and relatives and giving each other small treats and surprises. Then just as the days start to get longer, there's that surge of optimism with NY resolutions.

That makes me sound unbearably positive but actually I've suffered with depression for most of my life

I am generally pretty happy/content, but I am not a winter person. I was reading through this to see what people like about it, and it was just all the reasons I dislike it - coming home in darkness, the house being shut up, having to wear layers of clothes, worrying about the heating bill, heavy food, being cold - its kind of claustrophobic feeling.

I am a huge homebody and love being home with a book, but I like to be reading outside in the sun, with a cold drink. And having all the doors and windows open, the garden flowering, feeling warm all the time, BBQ's, salads, long evenings ... it just feels more carefree. Luckily I am in the Southern Hemisphere so coming in to it now!

I don't think its mental health related, I just hate feeling cold. A winter walk just feels like endurance rather than anything enjoyable.

Yes I'm actually a homebody too...but it's so much nicer with windows open, sun streaming in and sitting in the garden.

Here in London yesterday it was absolutely vile...it rained all day, was grey and miserable. It is now dark by 4.30pm. I'd absolutely love to live abroad...maybe one day when my kids are grown up!

Sleeping in the summer just isn't the same for me even with a sleep mask. It's really hard for me to catch up on sleep when it's light from 4am-10pm. In the winter it's no problem.

@oceanskye you have articulated exactly the reasons I prefer summer over winter.

We have had such low light levels over the past week. Yesterday was mild and sunny, and I enjoyed an afternoon walk, but having to have the lights on all day to be able to see to work, cook and read is depressing. It felt like it was beginning to get dark at 3.30 today and it is still only October.

It did feel like it started to get dark at 3.30 today. Anything earlier than 5pm feels so claustrophobic to me. And we have until Feb now to wait for it to be light at 5pm 😭. 5pm is significant to me for some reason. I can just about cope with darkness after 5 but before that feels awful.

My mental health is in tatters.
I've always struggled but the past 6 months have been the worst of my life, I'm surprised I'm even still here.

However, autumn/winter have always been by far my favourite months.
Summer makes me miserable.
I genuinely do not understand how anyone enjoys being hot and sweaty all day.
I dread the summer every single year.

I can already feel my mood picking up now summer is behind us.

And I massively resent every year being told to "Just enjoy it!" every time summer rolls around, or being told I'm 'miserable' for not enjoying it.
I don't tell people to "just enjoy it" when it's my ideal time of the year, or insinuate they are miserable because they aren't loving the rain showers against their windows, and the dark cosy evenings.
But then, I'm not an arsehole and I understand everyone is different (not aimed at the OP, just a general opinion).

I think you and I were separated at birth @Delatron.

I don't find winter "cosy", I find it claustrophobic. I want light and open windows, not fire, candles and hot chocolate.

I don't have a problem with the cold as long as it is bright and sunny.

Yes I think so! I’m also happy with cold/bright and sunny.

@LadyGrinningSoul85 Im glad you’ve at least got the comfort of your favourite months. Hope you can start to feel better.

I just don’t get hot and sweaty unless it’s about 30 degrees? Surely this summer was on the whole ok for those that like rain and cool? It was very disappointing.. I didn’t switch my air con on once after June. Apart from that week in Sept.

Yes. I think the summer haters got the summer they wanted.

To be fair, my garden loved all the rain, and the warm autumn has meant that my flowers have lasted for ages and my rose bushes have flowered multiple times.

Yes the gardens were much happier this year with all the rain and lack of heat.

I hate summer! My tip to enjoy winter is to romanticise it. My top ten things to really dwell in over winter are:
-hot, winter warming dinners. If you like to cook it's a delight to make a stew or a roast or try something that you just wouldn't want in a heatwave
-being cosy, that to me is pjs, nights in, a new or repeated old favourite TV series (doc Martin is always on in the winter for me!), hot drinks
-christmas!
-bonfire night especially if you start at a pub before hand
-markets / stalls, loads going on in the winter
-being able to chuck a nice coat and a scarf on and always feeling smart no matter what's underneath
-much less pressure and discomfort- summer to me is always having to make the most of the day and be groomed. I like a girly pamper evening but I hate those days where you want to wrap up and do housework.and you're forced to wear next to nothing and search for ways to keep your dog cool / not be able to walk them etc
-when it isn't raining nothing better than a walk in the winter sun- especially first thing when the sun is up and evrry colour of winter appears. Really good for your mood too and the rest of the day

"a walk in the winter sun- especially first thing when the sun is up and evrry colour of winter appears. Really good for your mood too and the rest of the day"
Doesn't work for me. I start work at 8 so it's still dark when I get to work in winter. And obviously when I leave too. Ugh. I hate it

-hot, winter warming dinners. If you like to cook it's a delight to make a stew or a roast or try something that you just wouldn't want in a heatwave - Tick

-being cosy, that to me is pjs, nights in, a new or repeated old favourite TV series (doc Martin is always on in the winter for me!), hot drinks - I do this most nights anyway, regardless of the season

-christmas! - It's OK, but I don't love it

-bonfire night especially if you start at a pub before hand - I quite like it, but it isn't enough to justify 6 months of miserable weather

-being able to chuck a nice coat and a scarf on and always feeling smart no matter what's underneath - I prefer the lightness and less hassle of wearing summer clothes and not having to spend ages getting kitted up to leave the house

-much less pressure and discomfort- summer to me is always having to make the most of the day and be groomed. I like a girly pamper evening but I hate those days where you want to wrap up and do housework.and you're forced to wear next to nothing and search for ways to keep your dog cool / not be able to walk them etc - I don't have a dog and I don't feel the pressure to make the most of the day and be groomed

-when it isn't raining nothing better than a walk in the winter sun- especially first thing when the sun is up and every colour of winter appears. Really good for your mood too and the rest of the day - Tick. Just as lovely in summer for me as well. We have loads of reservoirs to walk round, and most of them are surrounded by trees and are very shaded and good for walking under in warmer weather

This is weird. She’s telling you why she likes the season. We’ve gathered that you don’t, but why are you attempting to argue or discount her reasons for liking it? Did she say somewhere that these things would apply to you? How is the fact that they don’t apply to you relevant to her enjoyment of them?

You’ve been doing this for ages. You like summer, some people like autumn and winter. Seriously, what is your problem?

I like all the seasons. I actually like the dark, the falling leaves and general smell of autumn. And, like someone else said, I’ve always found rain (any rain) to be romantic.

However, the weather has very little impact on my mood. It’s a thing that happens in the background of my life, not a major factor.