This year I noticed a strange thing happening as summer melted into fall. As jackets got thicker and sleeves got longer and people started wearing tights under their dresses, I heard murmurs of a strange phenomenon. “Cuffing Season,” I would hear people say. “It’s almost Cuffing Season,” people would whisper to each other, with a tone that was half butterflies-in-the-stomach and half dread. “He’s trying to cuff”, “I want to get cuffed”, “It’s almost Cuffing Season”.

I had never heard this phrase before. As the temperatures dropped, the phrase became more and more prevalent. Looking for an explanation, I asked my roommate about this concept that was so foreign to me.

“When the winter months come, and people start getting cold and they realize that they need someone in their lives to cuddle with to keep them warm and cozy,” she told me wisely. “It’s like when hot chocolate isn’t enough to keep you warm.”

I guess from a survival standpoint this makes sense, however, something tells me that most 18 year old girls aren’t thinking about getting a man in order to keep themselves safe and warm from the winter elements. But the thing is, this isn’t just 18 year old girls that are buying into the Cuffing Season phenomenon. Scrolling through dating apps like Tinder and Bumble, I’ve seen the phrase pop up on numerous bios belonging to guys. Things like “Looking for a Cuffing Season partner” are normal to see in a dating app bio. This has become such a widely accepted idea that it has literally turned into a pick up line/conversation starter.

The temperatures continued to drop through the fall, and I continued to see things about this unfamiliar fifth season of the year, which somehow encompasses both fall and winter. Except that as I heard more people talking about it, I also realized that this isn’t a new phenomenon at all. Just because I had never heard the name, doesn’t mean I had never seen the presence of the season.

Every year, there are articles about cute winter dates, movies about Christmas romances, and engagement photos of beautiful couples surrounded by snow and blankets and matching LL Bean winter gear. Christmas is, for some reason, seen as an extremely romantic holiday. Maybe it isn’t because of the actual holiday, but instead because of the time of year. Maybe our ancient need for the body heat of other humans has evolved into the idea that cold weather is a prime time for intimacy.

From my perspective, there are two solutions to a cuff-less Cuffing Season. First, if you’re an eligible male, looking for a female with a suitable amount of body heat, shoot me a text. Otherwise, I could just save myself the emotional turmoil of a relationship, and buy a few extra blankets to keep warm. It’s amazing how humans have adapted to overcome challenges.