I love winter

[Barbas]

* * *​

The days are shorter, the nights are longer and it's so cold that even the morbidly obese cover up. It's quiet and grey, most things are either sleeping or dead and sometimes it even snows three feet in a day. Spring and autumn are a bit dull, but winter is when we really separate the men from the boys. Drivers lose control on the glacial highways of that country, plowing their cars into rivers, trees and limping wildlife; workers can't get home because of a seven-truck pile-up; families of deer turn to ice sculptures overnight; houses flood and freeze over in hours, entombing their hapless occupants; giants descend from the mountains to raid rural farms and homesteads; hospitals fill to bursting point; blood banks run dry. Every winter feels like it could be your last. But sometimes you wake up to a sparkling white duvet of snow, undisturbed save for the dotted lines of robin tracks and the occasional bump of a buried hedgehog. Those are morning when the world feels the most still, the most serene. The air is crisp and clear, ripping through your lungs like cold powdered glass. Even now you can feel your ears losing their grip on the rest of your body. Nobody wants to go out and work or commit a hate crime; they're busy snoozing under a pile of warm covers. You almost have the whole world to yourself.

So, Escapists, why do you love winter?

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

The reason why I like Winter is because it's closest to Spring. I love Winter more as it's nearing its end. To put it in its context very few places in Australia snow. In Sydney the coldest it seems to get is 8 degrees celcius.

It rains a lot. Bitterly (respectively) cold winds. With the buildings acting like concentrated wind tunnels. Half the days feel interchangeable with London weather on a good day (aka 'not nice' and often damp)...

But towards the end of Winter and into early Spring you're more likely to get these magnificent lightning displays. Electrical currents of powerful static rolling through carpets of dark grey. Powerful bursts that shake the ground and cause your hair to twist on end.

The awesome machinery of nature. If there's one sign of global warming I've directly felt, the lightning storms don't seem as potent and concentrated as when I was a kid. Of course everything seems bigger as a kid... so maybe it's just rose tinted glasses of nostalgia. I love lightning. Sydney used to get some of the biggest lightning storms on the planet. Doesn't seem that way anymore, though. Due to fairly arid and hot conditions sometimes you get these high atmospheric lightning syorms with zero precipitation. Just day long heat lightning. It was fun to watch.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I love the temperatures but I hate the shorter days. Especially when those shorter days are often overcast so you'll hardly have sunlight certain days. The worst was when I still worked and went to a certain college, and during winter I sometimes went to work/to college, went inside when it was dark and got outside when it was dark. That fucks with my rhythm like no tomorrow.

Even worse is that I'm really vulnerable to seasonal depression. I need sunlight to not feel cripplingly awful. And when you consider that I'm already vulnerable to depression episodes during summer, well, go figure.

But bring on the cold though. I overheat easily.

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, I use to do all sorts of snow activities, of course. I've got a nice hill that sees very little activity and a big back yard. I just don't do that much anymore because I'm 34. We'll see when my nephew has a few years on him.

 

[Evonisia]

I love the low temperatures. We don't get immensely freezing temperatures in England so it feels nice to be able to cover up with just a big coat. I like the longer nights. The more common overcast also really sets this mood I quite like, especially if there's a bit of wind that's not trying to knock you over. Its usually wet but not always raining, and the way things like traffic lights and earlier on Christmas lights reflect off the floor is really pretty.

Of course I love it when it snows, but we barely get snow for longer than two or three hours so that's never a guarantee in winter.

So yeah, winter is awesome, I love it.

 

[madwarper]

I used to like winter... But, not so much any more.

First, snow is great to play in as a kid. But, then you have to shovel it, which is not as fun.
Second, snow days were great when you got off from school. But, school ends and you still have to go to work.
Third, other drivers are idiots. The only thing worse is a wet idiot. The only thing still worse is a cold, wet idiot.

Though, it hard to beat snuggling under a warm blanket on a cold night.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

I love winter too. Mostly because of the Snow. I love snow! It's the best weather phenomenon out there. It's beautiful to look at, fun to play with, and it's even fun to shovel it. Plus I prefer being cooler then warmer, so Winter being the colder time of year, with snow being the coldest weather phenomenon, is perfect.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I love winter, it's the only time of the year I get to wear my jackets, and I fucking love my jackets.

Being in California you get tired of tee-shirt weather every day.

 

[Jute88]

Winter just looks really beautiful to me. Especially recently fallen snow, where no one has walked on yet. Ofcourse I wouldn't enjoy a constant winter, I like that we have four distinct seasons. But yeah, winter has gripped my heart in its cold embrace.

 

[Headsprouter]

Thin jumpers under heavy jackets.

It's easier to beat cold than heat. You can wrap up more, but you can't get more naked...I think.

Dead trees are surprisingly picturesque.

The shorter days suck though. My favourite part of summer is the late nights when the temperature is just right and the early mornings where you can go on quiet, pleasant well-lit walks. Waking up early to darkness isn't all that fun and neither is the stern reminder that you'll be going to bed soon in the evenings.

 

[infohippie]

I love winter so very much. It's an escape from the searing heat of summer - forty degrees plus for weeks on end is a bit much to put up with. I love the grey clouds covering the sky and the rain pelting down. I love dressing warmly and comfortably, I love snuggling up on the couch with a hot cup of tea and a glass of port. I love snuggling down in my bed at night with the covers up to my nose and listening to the rain on my roof.. I love the look of the wet gardens and roads. I probably would love snow if I lived in a country that got cold enough to have snow. It's always easier and more comfortable to warm up than to try to cool down.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I love winter because I love snow. Snow is awesome. I also like -40C, because I'm a madman.

Neither of these things happen in the Lower Mainland of BC. I haven't had a genuine winter in years.

 

[Bobular]

I love low temperatures so I can actually do stuff without overheating, I may even walk home from work without needing a shower 5 minutes into it.

I love the darkness, I may go months without seeing the sun, into work in the dark and home from work in the dark and I can sleep in really well as the sun wont wake me up.

I love the snow, although this year where I was we got like 2 hours of snow and I it was whilst I was at work so I didn't actually get to go out in it before it went.

I love the fact that there generally isn't football on TV because screw football moving the shows I want to watch.

I love that winter is just so much more comfortable and a happier time than summer.

 

[Recusant]

First and foremost: the cold. It's a wonderful thing, to head outside late on a winter night, and realize that for once, nature has finally shut up. No buzzing flies, no whining mosquitoes, no screeching starlings (thanks a lot, Eugene Schieffelin!)- all you get is the odd hooting owl. Maybe it's just that summer puts you in a situation where the artificial temperature controls are placed in the hands of puny people who couldn't generate heat if you set them on fire and winter tears all that away, but there's something wonderful about stepping out into the snow, slipping off your coat, and realizing that you could stay out in this forever and not start sweating. And if it does get too cold for you (twenty below is rather chilly, I admit), you can always put on more- you definitely have a hard limit on what you can take off.

Secondly, and even nearer to my heart- no Daylight Saving Time. I set my watch by the sun, with adjustments made for distance from the center of the time zone (remember that, young Escapists- while it's true that you probably never will use the advanced Algebra they're shoving down your throat, that doesn't mean it doesn't have its uses). Time zones are a reasonable compromise; ensuring that it's not a different time five hundred feet to the west. DST is not; it ensures that it's a different time five feet to the west (thanks a lot, Fred Upton!) of anyone who doesn't play along with this stupidity (a group that consists, here in the US, of Hawaii, most of Arizona, and me). The endless "go ahead and tell me about your fancy clocks that use nuclear fission to never gain or lose a second in a million years; I'll tell you about my fancy ball of nuclear fire that uses fusion to define all sense of time, and therefore inherently can't gain or lose a second, ever" fights finally stop and I get to welcome the rest of the country back to reality for a few months.

Third- ice cream. It tastes even better when it's cold out, and few people seem to realize this. As a result, the ice cream places that stay open tend to have much shorter lines.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I certainly don't!

I don't like feeling cold and I don't have teh luxary on keeping the heating on as long as I liked. Even then my workplace isn't the warmest place either despite having heaters (gotta keep the door open and we not allow to have radiator at the til cos they're next to the toliet rolls).

Even when it does snow on here, I hate the added feeling of wetness from the snow. To add insult to injury, melted snow make the terrian very slippery to the point that I had slip over in the past!

 

[cathou]

no. no i dont. i hate winter. ok, there's snow, you can play in it. you can ski and ice skating. and that's about it. it take forever to get the kids ready in the morning because you have to put boots, snow pants, coats, mittens, scarf, tuque. having to heat the car half an hour before you start because it was -35c in the night, trying to go out with the car because the guy i pay 250$ per winter to remove the snow always seems to come before the city snowplow make a 3 feet high snow pile at the end of my driveway, high electricity bills to heat the house...

so i usually try to stay indoors from november to april to hibernate !

 

[MercurySteam]

The reason why I like Winter is because it's closest to Spring. I love Winter more as it's nearing its end. To put it in its context very few places in Australia snow. In Sydney the coldest it seems to get is 8 degrees celcius.

As I type this its about 12 degrees in Winston Hills at 12am which inst too bad, I reckon last night was colder. However we do have some mornings which drop to 0 or even below; the ice on my windshield can attest to this.

Mostly I like the clothes I can wear in winter and the cuddling, it is literally the best part of the season.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I hate winter. Up here in Canada the winters are fuckin' nuts.

Sometimes you get giant deluges of snow, other times you have a week straight of -30, other times we alternate between unseasonably warm to freezing and back so fast it fucks up the house or pipes or cars.

The only good thing winter has is no freakin' wasps. That's it for me. :s

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

I like winter if there's snow. Otherwise it can fuck off.

 

[maninahat]

I like winter because I like jumpers.

It's very exciting.

But I prefer autumn for being rainy and cool, rather than freezing. Wherever I go to in the UK there is a paucity of snow in winter, so I can't really call it a selling point.