After weeks of office parties, festive get-togethers and family dinners, January provides a welcome relief from being overscheduled. With nothing to do and nowhere to go, a bare calendar feels like the ultimate luxury.
While the gloomy stretch between the holidays and spring is an ideal time to be anti-social (read: broke and lazy), there are still plenty of people who will try and coerce you out of your sweatpants and into a taxi headed for a night out on the town.
Sure, a cocktail can be nice, and every good Canadian girl knows how to navigate icy sidewalks and snow banks in her least sensible heels, but as the temperature dips, the idea of going to a club or a bar or anywhere that isn’t your own living room becomes less and less appealing.
I think we should stop trying so hard to have fun and embrace these precious weeks of guilt-free hibernation while they last. I mean, do you really want to risk hypothermia just to spend another Saturday night covered in spilled drinks and other people’s sweat, elbowing your way across a crowded dance floor and wondering, “Am I having fun yet?”
This winter, I’ve decided that staying in is the new going out. Instead of whining about frostbitten exposed limbs and overpriced mixed drinks, can we all agree to just stay indoors for the next few months?
Now, before you dismiss me as a friendless shut-in, give the idea of becoming a winter hermit a chance. Think of all the money you’ll save, the calories you wont consume, the clothes that will go un-ruined! A few months of self-imposed house arrest will do wonders for your wallet, waistline and probably your mental health.
You’ll host board-game nights, learn how to cook your own meals, sort out your underwear drawer, actually read all those books you so proudly display on your coffee table and go to bed at a reasonable hour. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a fireplace and all of these indoor activities will seem 1,000 times better because of it.
Ultimately, all any winter hermit really needs is a few bottles of red wine and a subscription to Netflix. Perhaps if you’re feeling really ambitious, you’ll invite some low-key companions over to share that aforementioned wine and discuss how you actually don’t miss going places and doing things at all.
