Noted Socialist Newspaper Advocates $32 Bottles Of Wine, Paying $40 For A Bath. News At 11!

Yes Charles, even in a Marxist society, Pinot Grigio should be served ice-cold!

What I like about this time of year is that it is also the season to put up Christmas lights. If we lived someplace normal, where it got dark later, we wouldn't be able to enjoy them as much. And once we go past New Year's (the official end of Christmas lighting season) the days start getting longer. It's almost like we planned it that way.

If that's not your thing, just fire up the furnace (natural gas is dirt cheap right now, and it's the season where you get more kWh for the low rate if you heat electric) and break out the beer, popcorn, and board games.

Or, leave the heat off and go hang out in a bar or coffee shop.

Are you kidding, I love this time of year. What I hate is Summer. Summer sucks and each year I count the days til the heat fueled misery ends! Give me overcast skies and a chill in the air any day, everyday, i'd be happy.

@5 I'm with you - while I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate summer, I prefer the winter. Its like Tolstoy said about families - Summer days are all the same but each day of winter is wintery in its own way.

@4: Twinkle lights and fires FTW. In general I like to incorporate as much hygge into my life as possible during the dark half of the year. Favorite things include hot chocolate and movies in front of the fire, a stiff drink in a dimly lit bar, Korean barbecue up in Lynnwood. Gonna give that Russian bath a try this year, too.

Come on! Nobody at The Stranger could manage to write that Seasonal Affective Disorder is actually a diagnosis shared by many folks around here. If regular exercise, a happy light, and vitamin D supplements don't work for you talking to your doctor is recommended. A week somewhere warm and sunny in Jan. or Feb. helps too.

Crank up your crock pot! (or your top of the stove stew pot.)
Just
Hot, nutritious, belly full Stew will get you through!

1 to 2 pounds of SWEET Italian sausage, you slice or dice
1-2 large cans crushed or diced tomatoes, or whole you dice
Several sweet peppers. preferably yellow red or orange
Onion
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Cooking oil
(Optional:
Teaspoon or two of Italian seasoning or Oregano
But preferably, teaspoon or two Coriander seeds or dash of powder)

You can dice the onion garlic and sautee first, with sausage on stove top stew pot, or just throw in crock pot raw.

Add peppers, pour in tomators and add seasoning.

Crank.up your crockpot, high for shorter period, low for overnight or while at work.

Or simmer on stove a couple hours.

No matter the tweaking with that basic recipe, I've never gone wrong.

Delicious! Filling, smells great!

The Tacoma version of the butterfly house is the tropical fish house at the point defiance zoo. Best place to go when it starts pouring during zoolights.

If it's not for you, the rest of us would happily take the cheaper rents from you leaving.

@1 A $32 bottle of wine equates to around $6 a glass, which is a pretty great price when drinking wine anywhere other than your home or in an alley somewhere.

I never had to survive a frigid Midwest winter, but coming from a place that's colder than Seattle, here's one (inexpensive) piece of advice I'd like to add: don't neglect layering in the bottom half of your body. Plenty of people wear sweaters and undershirts, but if your legs and feet are cold, you'll be cold. Invest in some good boot socks, and slip on some leg warmers under your pants if you need to. No one will notice, I promise.

Seattle Conservatory - so warm, with a tropical room and a desert room and so many flowers!! All in the same building, and only $4. Go to winter retreat. http://www.seattle.gov/parks/parkspaces/…

@8 Makers Mark or some other suitable bourbon works. Better yet if someone else is buying! After you can't fly to a sunny locale every winter week!

Mr. Vel-DuRay and I both have some leopard print pajama bottoms that we wear while lounging around the house ($7.99 at Grocery Outlet). They're very comfortable, very warm, and they make me feel like Angie Dickenson in an Asti Spumante commercial - particularly if there's a fire in the fireplace.

I've lived here my entire life, and I'm middle-aged and I've had to stake out a winter retreat far away. We had an extra sunny summer, almost scary, but we had a terrible October to make up for it. Usually, October is a gorgeous if a bit cool month. Seattle always equalizes out anything food that happens. The Seahawks win, then they are crusehd. The weather's extra nice, and you lose it somewhere else. Face it, this place sucks. I'm laughing my guts out at all the newbies who come here, and have no idea what they're in for. Of course, people who can afford million dollar real estate can afford trips out, and that's what it takes.

Honestly, the band from Bellevue who released the song 'I guess I'm just not cool enough for Seattle' had it right. This place is barely tolerable in the summer, but there ARE a lot of festivals, and outdoor activities, but in the winter, it ain't NYC, or LA, or Miami, or London (also overrated in my opinion, with even grayer weather) or Paris. Face it, you've been had. You're going to be sorry you moved here. It's 3 months good, 3 months ok, and 6 months terrible, and Seattle does almost nothing meaningful for Christmas, a holiday made rotten in the US anyway. Go back to the place you came from that had personality.

Please kill yourselves or move back to where the fuck you people came from. There is nothing worse than listening to people bitch about the REAL Seattle. HELLO! Didnt you people Google this city before you moved here or a the very least Wikipedia the word "Seattle"? No, the internet is for Facebook and Bar-Closing-last-ditch hook-ups. Reality Check: Its gets dark in the winter! Believe it or not, It rains in the Pacific Northwest. I love this overheard conversation, "....but it was so beautiful here when we visited in the summer of 2012, I hate that it gets dark at 4:30 - and whats up with all the rain? Can you hear the glass braking whine in this woman's voice? No, instead of researching where you're going to live you flocked here in droves like a bunch of shit-bag pigeons. Actually, you stay, I'll leave, once this town implodes on its own stupidity it wont be worth living in anymore anyway.

There are also several public pools in Seattle with dry saunas and hot tubs that you can go to for $5.25, check out the Seattle Parks and Recreation website. There is no drinking allowed (bummer I know) BUT a lot of the pools are by bars. In my experience the public pools are cleaner than private ones.
Also, it seems counterintuitive but going to the snow (snowshoeing, sledding, or skiing) makes me feel better because it is usually super bright and no matter what you do you get pretty sweaty.

A how to survive winter guide for a place that rarely gets below freezing... Only in Seattle.