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?

What do I love about the dark and chilly evening? Boots weather. You’ll have to prise my knee highs from my cold dead feet.

I hate Summer where it's too hot, light too early and the bloody noise when everyone is outside.

Well this is the flip side of living as far north as we do.

We don't have the swings as extreme as the likes of Russia but we do swing from "light for 19 hours and I'm sweating like a bitch" to " light for six and a half hours and I'm fucking freezing "

I prefer autumn. But I think I'm quite a positive person on the outside! On the inside I would say I'm balanced of that makes sense in a weird way?

But I think I'm one of those people where you can put me anywhere and I just bumble along OK.

I like winter but not off the back of a shit Spring or Summer. Winter seems to go on forever if you haven't had a summer. But it's a good time to go inward, get things done.

I'd add, the costs of heating home over winter is also stressful this year.

You could say that about anything. I find Eastenders depressing but other people love it. I find wearing all black depressing but some people love it. I enjoy spending long periods by myself with no loneliness, other people might find that depressing.
I'm not a winter person, I prefer the light and the warmth of summer, I just kind of try and make the best of winter and force myself to see some positives in it.
I am heavily considering investing in a sunlight lamp though.

I love winter, it's dark early and I've always loved walks in the darker evenings, foggy, rainy and blustery weather just makes me feel calm and some how less pressured to be doing days out etc.

The summer makes me really down. Long days of sunshine with all kids off school make me feel pressured to be out doing fun things in the hot weather and its just not for me.

I love the house all dim with fairy lights and something slow cooking for dinner. I'm not in any way a person who has no stress in life, very much the opposite but the dark winter weather definitely lifts my mood, or doesn't lower it like the long sunny days do.

I like winter. It’s snowy and cold where I live. So we spend most weekends in snowy but sunny mountains. Skiing, snow shoe walking, mulled wine.
The weather also forces us to slow down and relax. In summer I have so many things to do outside garden related, planting, painting, that I just can’t do in winter. I can’t go outside and carry on doing stuff at 7/8pm, just indoors.
Our work is also business in peak summer, and much more chilled in winter.

In summer it’s hot and sunny for months, usually 30+ everyday. And it’s light 5am-9pm so I feel like the day is much longer.

I hate both, because I work nightshift.
In winter, I wake up and it's dark, I get home and go to bed, it's dark. I feel like a bloody mole.
In summer, I go to work and it's light, I come home and go to bed, it's light.

I really relate to this.

OP, you asked earlier “how some people can actively enjoy something that makes others so miserable?” - summer makes me miserable. I can’t bear heat (actually physically can’t cope with it - I struggle so much to cool down), so I have days at a time where I don’t sleep, can’t work, can’t focus. It makes me physically sick. But I can see that most people enjoy summer, enjoy heat and the hot sun etc. We’re all different!

As others have said, I love the cosy aspects of winter. A couple of years ago, I decided to really embrace it. I put up fairy lights, light candles, light a fire - so it’s light in my house, no matter how dark outside. I make lists of books I want to hunker down with, box sets I want to catch up on, house projects I want to get on with. Winter is MY time!

And when we do have those crisp cold bright days, I make sure to get outside and top up on sun as much as possible.

And yet I’ve told you I don’t live in a big house in the countryside with an aga etc and am still perfectly content to make the most of winter and find joy where I can in it and you just seem to be trying to invalidate that.

Urgh, I just hate very hot summer days.

I have very fair skin and burn SO quickly, so I can’t enjoy much time outdoors with friends in the summer, because I’m always having to dodge around finding the shade. Even with topping up my SPF50+ very frequently. It’s horrible. I even have to religiously apply a layer of sun cream to my right arm before driving home from work, so I don’t arrive home with one bright red arm 😂

Then I wear the SPF50+, and I end up all sticky and disgusting, and it stains clothes, and then I end up with a lovely spate of acne as a result.

Honestly, it’s all just such a bother, and I end up trapped in my house, trapped inside, trapped in the shade, and I hate it.

Very hot summer days just feel so restrictive to me.

So yes, I much prefer autumn, winter and spring.

This ^^ 🤮

I was just about to post something very similar!

I prefer winter clothes, I don't have to worry about sunburn.

It probably would feel cosy and lovely getting home after a horrible bus journey in the rain

I hate winter mainly because it rains almost constantly where we live and I have livestock that need sorting twice a day. When you are wading through muddy slop and get home and have nowhere to dry out coats and boots it gets really depressing as it makes the house so damp and dirty too.

I run hot, spend all summer feeling too hot and I don't like summer clothes, I'm always sweaty and awkward.

I love tights and jumpers and layering up. Don't like cold mornings much but autumn is probably my favourite season.

I think enjoyment of it might depend on work patterns and how much you manage to get out in daylight hours.

I'm finding the older I get the more I hate the feeling and effects of sunscreen. I avoid going outside in the sun if I can because I hate it so much.

This. And the neighbour kids go inside early instead of shrieking outdoors all bloody evening.

I enjoy all the seasons for different reasons(not stuck on really hot weather) I would be depressed getting all hot or all cold weather!

That said, my house definitely looks better in the winter when the sun isn’t shining through the windows on all the dust & fingerprints!

I like cosiness. Hot drinks are nicer than cold ones, my favourite foods are mostly winter warmers, I love fireplaces and fluffy blankets, and the kids cuddling me, and bonfire night and Christmas, and the kids actually sleeping because it's dark and no other kids are playing out.

Summer brings insect bites, sunburn, itchy horrible sun cream, itchy sand, the arseache of hair removal, heat stroke (ma and DS get it very easily), clothes that show my flab, noise constantly, the neighbours take their rows outside onto the doorstep along with their smoking, all of which drifts in through my windows, and it's too hot for proper cuddles. Yuck. And salads. Blech.

Bring on winter.

Clothes! All my favourite clothes are winter wear. Polo necks and fluffy leggings and wraps and longline cardies and shackets and my lovely boots.

I can cope with the cold but it’s weeks of endless rain that drives me mad.

I wonder if the winter-lovers (all tucked up under blankets eating stews & hot chocs) and the summer lovers (can get out & about later / early morning wood runs, long evening bike rides etc) can be split into those who are naturally less active/sporty and those who need to do outdoor activity most days (running, gardening, cycling, outdoor swimming, hiking, climbing etc)

I can’t imagine anyone in the latter group saying they just love only getting 8hrs of daylight per day, and the prospect of rain storms, sleet, etc.

Havent read the thread but Summer makes me miserable. Heat gives me rashes and I react badly to any insect bite I get. Plus I work in a setting thats always boiling!

However I understand that lots of people like summer, and to each thier own. I cant understand how you cant understand that.