Listed: Winter bliss blues

Three reasons for our love/hate relationship with winter

By Brittney MacDonald, Life & Style Editor

Look around. It’s easy to see that most of Vancouver’s diverse population has a love-hate relationship with winter. As a west coast city we lack the months of frequent blizzards and sub-zero temperatures, but that doesn’t mean that we adore nature’s most barren season. Unfortunately, most of the stuff people love about winter is also connected with what they hate about it, which leaves most of us conflicted over whether or not we look forward to Jack Frost’s yearly visits. To confuse you further, here’s a list of love-hate inducing winter traditions.

1. Breaking out the sweaters. Whoever said that diamonds are a girl’s best friend obviously never wrapped themselves in an oversized cardigan. It’s a yearly ritual to get excited about knitwear—it’s comfortable, it keeps you warm, and it’s soft. Hell, it’s basically like dressing yourself in an entire bed, but on a more socially acceptable level. All that excitement over which woolly hat you’re going to pair with which scarf and what sweater you’re going to throw on before racing out the door to show off your sheepy glory almost overshadows the fact that we wear knitwear in the winter because it’s frigging cold outside! Not to mention, this is Vancouver—winter means freezing rain more often than it means snow—so you may look cute, but you smell like an old couch.
2. Specialty coffee. You didn’t think I’d leave out all the fun winter drinks, did you? From crème brûlée lattes to peppermint mochas, winter has a more diverse coffee collection than fall, and people are more than willing to take advantage of it. For habitual coffee drinkers like me, this means a plethora of delicious flavours to choose from. And for people who maybe don’t drink coffee or tea so much, it’s an excuse to finally bond with your caffeine addicted lovers, friends, or family over a cup of something that resembles coffee, but is more akin to a bowl of sugar. Yep, winter is a grand and wondrous time—until spring rolls around, and you realize that all that fancy coffee has left you with a few extra pounds and at risk of diabetes.
3. Shorter days. It’s true, winter does have shorter days due to the Earth’s rotation—and most people see this as a good thing because theoretically, shorter days mean more night life. I mean, winter is the only season where “Happy Hour” doesn’t count as day drinking. As young adults, inside our brains we are trained to equate night time with free time, because work and school are things you do during the day. What we don’t seem to realize every year is that darkness isn’t really a measure of time. Sure, the day might be shorter, but that doesn’t mean your work shift will end any quicker. It just means that you’ll be commuting before dawn, and heading home after dusk. All your free time will be spent in the dark, and you probably won’t see the light of day until June.