"The Winter Blues"
Definition: a phenomenon where one finds it exceedingly difficult to get out of bed or care about anything during the months of January, February, and even March. This is often brought on by the end on the holiday season and the beginning of a world of ice, slush, and sickness.
As you may or may not have guessed, I made this definition up, BUT I think it encompasses the feeling that many of us get around the new year. It's a kind of just-wait-for-spring feeling, or why-does-winter-exist feeling.
I've experienced this phenomenon myself, although winter is, in fact, my favorite season. This personal conundrum has forced me to analyze the true nature of such a season, and thus, compile all the ways that such winter blues can be beaten and delight can be found in the frosty February mornings.
1. The Fashion Opportunities
First of all, I think the no. 1 advantage of winter in terms of clothing is the layers. You get to wear more clothes than normal, and thus buy more clothes than normal, and be more elaborate in outfit design than normal. Think of it this way: the typical summer outfit is a shirt, shorts, and shoes. It's far too muggy to put on anything else. However, the typical winter outfit, depending on your zone of latitude, goes something like this: shirt, pants or skirt, shoes, sweater, coat, scarf, hat, even EARMUFFS. There's so much more room for stylish creativity in the winter months. Plus, it's easier to hide if you've gained a few pounds over the holidays. But I digress.
2. The Beverages
Hot drinks are indeed refreshing when it's below freezing outside, rather than a necessary evil as they are during any other hot and humid time of the year. I can actually enjoy my steaming morning coffee rather than sweat as I simultaneously sip and put on deodorant! Besides coffee, there's hot chocolate, apple cider, and eggnog, all of which only a disrespectful rogue would dare drink past March. And fine, okay, I'll say it - so much more alcohol is consumed during the winter months, which can be both a blessing and a curse.
3. The Sentimentality
Perhaps only I hold this opinion, but there is a flitting kind of magic that only winter can possess. There's something about the white landscape, runny noses, frosty windows, and crackling fires. As things freeze, certain bonds are created that occur in no other way. It's like how The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Little Women, The Catcher in the Rye, and all of the other coming of age novels take place in the cold. Maybe the winter blues force us to come of age once again and rediscover ourselves during the earth's transitional period, the incubation period before rebirth.
This is why winter is my favorite season, despite the blues.
