It is no secret that fall is my favourite season.
Let me clarify. September (of which only a sliver is technically fall) through to mid-October is my favourite season. The rest of the year is spent waiting for fall.
But every good thing has downsides, so I’m coming at you with another Top Five/Bottom Five post in honour of my beloved season.
TOP FIVE THINGS ABOUT FALL
- Routine. I love the structure that comes with fall. A return to school. A return to regular exercise and more nutritious eating habits. Bedtimes get re-aligned and my planner gets a second wind for the remainder of the year. #Love
- The weather. Where we live in Canada, September and October are generally glorious. Crisp mornings that put a bounce in your step, warm sunny afternoons, and beautiful mid-evening sunsets.
- The colours. Leaves! Fall flowers! Cozy sweaters in an array of autumnal hues. Such a feast for the eyes.
- The food. I love the comfort foods synonymous with fall. After picnics all summer, I really appreciate sitting down at a table with warm, carb-laden food. Bring on the stews and soups and fresh bread and spiced cookies and turkey and baked potatoes and pumpkin pie.
- The warmup for Christmas. I love Christmas and it tends to be the highlight of my year. When falls rolls around, I know Christmas is coming.
Bonus: That Canada celebrates Thanksgiving in October (the second Monday). It is such a nice time of year and still so far removed from Christmas that it feels like a truly distinct holiday.
BOTTOM FIVE THINGS ABOUT FALL
- Winter is coming. Aside from Christmas, there is nothing redeemable about winter in Canada. Nothing. I don’t like snow. I don’t like snowy activities. I tolerate them because if I didn’t I would lose approximately five months of each year to soul-crushing despair.
- Allergies. I feel like my seasonal allergies are at their worst in the fall. Goldenrod. Rotting leaves.
- Winter clothing. Even though it’s fall, there will be days where hats and gloves are required and that is not the fall weather I want. I’m always bitter the first time I need something to keep my hands warm on the morning walk to school.
- Rain. I don’t like rain at any time of year, but fall rain always seems extra depressing.
- Bare trees. As much as I love the glorious colours of fall, I hate the look of bare trees. At least in winter (*shiver*) when we have snow, things look more cheerful. But when all the trees have lost their leaves it makes me want to cry.
Bonus: Halloween. I know I’ll get flack for this, but I really dislike Halloween. My kids love it and I feign excitement, but if I could skip every Halloween and Halloween-adjacent activity or responsibility for the rest of my life, I’d be on board. I might end up being away from home this Halloween and I am legitimately excited. My kids may be less enthused…
Your turn. If you live in a climate with defined seasons, what are your top five/bottom five for fall? Is there anyone else out there who isn’t a fan of Halloween?
Header photo by Amy Humphries on Unsplash
mbmom11
Autumn is the best, though right now I’m suffering through late summer temps.
I love the cooler temperatures, crisp mornings. The angle of the light during the day against the leaves is neat. Ealier nights, dawn at a reasonable hour.
Ragweed season does stink- I’ve been sneezing and congested with an achy ear since August.
I like the look of bare trees against the sky in the early morning and at sunset. It’s the dead grass in the late fall and winter that’s depressing to me. Snow is good for hiding that.
Elisabeth
It is HOT right now where we live and certainly feels more like summer than fall (which, technically, it is!)
I also appreciate earlier nights. I love being inside and cozy.
Jenny
Oooh! I am here for this one!!! Give me all the fall things! Because I live in ‘Opposite Land” (aka Florida) one of the things I actually DON’T like about fall is the weather- September is not a pleasant month for us. But, one of the great things about fall is- winter is coming! That’s when we’ll get our crisp, cool mornings and pleasant daytime temps. Adding to my Top 5 list would be football, pumpkin spice (oatmeal, waffles, creamer in my tea…) and yes I do like Halloween! I’ll be curious to see if anyone shares your dislike for that holiday. And of course… Christmas. Is. Coming. Woohoo!
Elisabeth
Ha – Opposite Land. Yes, we struggle with very different weather-related things at very different times!
Football (classic American answer), and I’m with you on pumpkin spice, though I rarely cook with it.
Sara
I have a mixed relationship with Fall. I have loved it some years and other years see it as a dreaded lead up to winter which is not my fave either (Colorado weather is so unpredictable).
I really came here to say I LOATHE Halloween. I spend 364 days a year trying to get my insanely extroverted oldest to discern safe and unsafe people and you want me to send him to the door of strangers to accept candy?! Hard pass. Also, I’m the Halloween Scrooge, why can’t I just buy the candy we like and give it to ourselves?! Last year we had a fragile baby and B was asleep by 6:30 after “trick or treating” at our beloved downstairs neighbor who gives him chocolate every day. Not sure this year I’ll be so lucky. Hmph. Lol
Elisabeth
The weather can be so variable in fall (though spring is more hit-and-miss where we live, so in general I hate winter AND spring). We get about one month of usually perfect weather, so I’m very grumpy if that month is thwarted with unusually cold temps or rain.
Yay! Someone else who hates Halloween. Also, it’s such a big thing now. When I was little you dressed up, you went out, you got candy, you came home. Done. Now it’s a months-long event. Though, to be fair, I hated Halloween as a kid. I dreaded it every year and only went out because I wanted free candy I think my parents assumed since I was a kid I liked it. But my dislike of Halloween is decades old.
Joy
Fall is my favorite!
I love apples, cool mornings, better sleeping, sweaters, and putting the garden to bed.
I actually enjoy rainy days in the fall. The pattering of raindrops on the windows makes me feel cozy and happy, especially when I have a cup of tea and a good book.
I don’t like most pumpkin things and the only thing I like about Halloween are the tiny children in adorable costumes who come to our door. However, the doorbell freaks our cats out so it’s not a good night for them.
Elisabeth
Agreed that if it has to rain, being inside with a hot drink and a good book is incredibly cozy! Cute kids in costumes are adorable, but I’d gladly skip the whole evening. Alas, the rest of the continent does not agree with me.
Ally Bean
Top 5:
Colorful leaves on the trees
Lower humidity
Sweaters
Apples
Halloween
Bottom 5:
Weed pollen that makes my eyes itch
People complaining about the existence of pumpkin spice
Dead grass
Trying to not eat Halloween candy before Halloween
Intensely scented black candles that give me a headache
Elisabeth
YES to lower humidity. I hate humid heat and it is nice to have the perfect blend of just enough moisture in the air (we struggle with a lot of dryness in the winter) to be comfy.
Why would people complain about pumpkin spice? Do they hate life?
And black candles? What are those?!
sarah
You ate SO CLOSE to the end of Halloween. After middle school, it was not a big deal for my kids. Hang in there.
The ONLY thing I dislike about fall is the mud (ditto spring). EVERYONE GETS SO DIRTY.
Elisabeth
Yeah, I know we’re nearing the end of our run and I am relieved. Mud isn’t a huge issue for us in the fall, but I hhaattee it in the spring. I also hate warm snowy days when the kids come in and every inch of their winter gear is covered in a thick layer of wet snow and to get it downstairs to dry we leave gobs of wet snow that melts on the floor and we step in it and our socks get wet and then the floor has icky wet footprints everywhere. Sarah, I do not handle wet winter gear well AT ALL. And we have a fairly large entryway so I have zero right to complain. Still. I hate it! (We don’t have a garage and it is my #1 wish for a next renovation).
Suzanne
Let’s see… I love fall clothing options. Anytime jeans and boots are appropriate, I’m in. Same goes for a light jacket or a long sweater. Yes please. I also love the low humidity.
Things I dislike… the DARK. I hate waking up in the dark. Not fun at all. And I also dislike the period when everything is dead but there’s no beautiful snow to cover it up.
Elisabeth
I’m with you on hating to wake up in the dark. The house always feels cold and sad and I turn on lights but it’s not the same as sunshine. I feel you 100% on that one. And ditto about dead things with no snow. It’s even worse in spring because everything is a mud bog, but at least then I know greenery is coming soon. But brown grass and leafless trees made me sad…
Engie
We have some overlap, but we disagree on Halloween entirely! I wrote out my list before I looked at yours, which was a fun way of doing this that I’d never done before!
Top Five
1) Both the dog and cat are so much happier. Hannah isn’t dying in the sun on walks and Zelda likes that we open the windows more. I like seeing them enjoying themselves. Sometimes in the summer I think their fur coats are truly cruel.
2) Opening windows at night! Sleeping is so much better.
3) I like all the fun autumnal activities – corn mazes, pumpkin patches, haunted houses – I’m in for all of it!
4) The leaves are very pretty for a short amount of time.
5) I adore Halloween and so does my husband. We put lights up on our porch, carve pumpkins, and spend too much time considering what to hand out to the trick or treaters. I love it so much.
Bottom Five
1) It is a harbinger of winter. Fall is GREAT, but it lasts like three weeks and then it’s endless winter.
2) No more sandals. I’m going to have to start to wear shoes with toes and that’s upsetting.
3) Raking. I think that’s self-explanatory.
4) I’m going to have to start wearing leggings with my dresses. I love the freedom of a summer dress and having to wear leggings makes me realize I’m no longer footloose and fancy free.
5) The shorter days.
Elisabeth
I knew you loved Halloween!
Fall is the shortest season in spirit. Three great weeks is about right. It’s never long enough and always leaves me wanting more. And the shoe thing gets me every year. It’s so much more work to get out the door!
We only have a few trees and get so much wind they blow into the back woods. We mow over them and most years don’t rake at all. It’s okay. You can hate me.
If I could have the shorter days and fall temperatures, I’d be cool with it. I love hunkering down at night with candles on, but it’s the cold weather that sucks the life and joy right out of me.
Karen A.
Autumn is absolutely my favorite season. It’s unseasonably hot here, so this is a nice distraction from the drought!
Top Five:
1. Changing leaves. Love, love them. So much so I have to be careful when driving that I don’t get distracted by the gorgeous trees.
2. All the apples…apple season is the best.
3. Earlier sunsets. I’m a little weird, I like the dark.
4. Cooler temps! I’m waiting for a stretch of days where we can have the windows open and no A/C to worry about…so is our cat. I also like rain. Bring it on! Rainy days in the fall > rainy days in summer.
5. School starting up. I do like a schedule and a firm to-do list.
BOTTOM FIVE:
1. Trick or treating. I like Halloween decor, I love fall decor, and I like the history and lore behind Halloween. I loathe trick-or-treating. We participate but lately live in neighborhoods with few kids.
2. Scented candles. I used to like them a lot, but have gotten more sensitive over the years. I’d rather simmer some cinnamon sticks.
3. All the Halloween candy, everywhere. Kids get enough sugar IMO. Normalize fruit! Or something. Pretzels. I remember being delighted with a bag of chips in my trick or treat haul as a kid.
4. Frost on the cars in the morning. Somehow more annoying to clear off than snow.
5. The annual winter hat and glove roundup.
Elisabeth
I’m with you on liking early evenings. I am a homebody and I love my PJs and something about an early sunset screams: put on your pajamas. I’m happy to oblige.
Another person with me on Halloween. And yes – if I could decorate and do all the fun things WITHOUT the pressure of costumes and candy, I’d be fine with Halloween. It’s the trick-or-treating bit I don’t like.
I’m the same with candles. Last week I had the worst headache and couldn’t figure out why. It was lighting a delicious smelling candle that made me feel like crap 🙁
Frost is a nightmare. We used to have a carport and I miss it so much, primarily because I never had to clean off my car and it was amazing.
Gigi
You Canadians do Thanksgiving right…whoever thought of having American Thanksgiving at the end of November was out of their ever loving minds! It’s insanity, I tell you, INSANITY.
Spring and Fall are my favorite months – at least now that I live here. Coming from Texas we had two seasons. Hotter than hell and cold-ish – which was when we weren’t even guaranteed to have cold-ish weather (I didn’t even own a proper winter coat back then; I didn’t need it). The thing that aggravates me about fall (and spring come to think of it) is the allergies but at least when fall finally shows up, the humidity is gone. So I guess I can live with the allergies.
Elisabeth
Yup, my allergies just seem to hate spring and fall more and more the older I get?
Gigi
Wait, why are none of my comments showing up? I left one the other day and again today and they are just gone. I’m super sad about that.
Elisabeth
I’m so sorry, Gigi! And confused. They’re showing up for me within my comment moderator section in my Dashboard, and old on the site itself. I e-mailed you and sent a screenshot, but I’m flummoxed why it’s not showing up on your end. I’m so sorry!
Michelle G.
I love fall so much! It’s my favorite season. First, though, I want to say that Canadians are so smart to celebrate Thanksgiving in October. That would be much nicer.
I like cute Halloween decorations and fun treats, like caramel apples, popcorn balls, pumpkin cookies, and pies. I never thought about trick-or-treating because we live too far away, and no one ever comes to our house. But I don’t blame you for disliking that part of Halloween!
Favorite Fall things:
1. Cool weather
2. Pretty leaves
3. Cozy clothing
4. Soups, stews, and hot beverages
5. I actually love the shorter daylight hours.
Least Favorite Fall Things:
1. Bugs trying to get into the house.
2. Raking
3. Putting away the hoses and summer yard stuff.
4. The bare trees.
5. Hunting season. Hunters descend on my town in droves. There’s even a hideous event called “The Hunter’s Feed,” where the main street is lined with tables serving various dishes made with wild meat. Rattlesnake stew, Mountain Lion Lasagne, and a billion vats of chili made with elk, deer, and antelope. (Is anyone sick yet?) Shooting noises fill the air. It’s insane.
Elisabeth
See, I think I would like Halloween (or decorating for fall) more if trick-or-treating weren’t involved. My parents are like you – they never, ever get any trick or treaters which is a little sad because I know my mom would love it (she grew up in a city and they used to get like 300 people coming to her childhood home).
I love the cozy food, clothing, and excuse for blankets. I love the shorter evenings, but find it VERY hard to get up when it’s still dark outside. That’s one of my least favourite things about winter. Hunting is not a big deal where we live at all, but it sounds very…intense…where you live. And wait – who hunts rattlesnake and mountain lions???
Birchie
There is something about the start of the school year that feels like a return to a routine – back to school and back to scouts (and more solo travel for meeeee!)
Ugh allergies! Someone was asking what I’m allergic to this time of year, and I assumed it was the rotting leaves, but I bet it’s goldenrod. Scratchy throat, scratchy eyes, general fatigue – partly from the allergies and partly from the benadryl that I have to take at night turn down the symptoms so that I can sleep.
I like Thanksgiving at the end of November for exactly the reason that you don’t – I like a big long uninterrupted holiday season. But also…I wouldn’t mind adding another holiday and I do want to go to Canada, so maybe I should start by observing Canadian Thanksgiving.
Elisabeth
Allergies are so annoying and it can be hard to know if it’s a cold, allergies, too little sleep etc. But almost always I feel a lot better if I take antihistamines, so I think I underestimate how much allergies bring me down.
What’s better than one Thanksgiving? Two of course.
San
Don’t despair, Elisabeth, I’ll open the “not-a-fan-of-Halloween”-club with you. If it was for me, we could completely skip this holiday. I didn’t grow up with it and it’s not a holiday that I’ve grown to love… I do a Halloween run through our neighborhood every year to look at some of the decorations and that’s always fun but that’s the extent of it for me.
Elisabeth
It sounds like we’d have quite a few members!
coco
You know that I don’t live in a fall season country anymore so I’ll say what I used to like about fall.
– the color of changing leaves
– the comfort of being at home
– soup, coffee
– blanket
– stay in bed to read
bottom:
– cold feet and hands
– shorter day light
I am with you about winter rain. I don’t like it. And I don’t like the gray sky at 4pm, so depressing.
Elisabeth
YES to cold feet and hands. I’d add ears because my ears get cold so easily. I really want to get a heated mat for my desk after reading about Engie’s. And I need something to go under my feet at my desk, too. That’s when I get the coldest. I use Magic Bags but they need to be reheated, so having something that was at the same (warm!) temperature the whole time I was seated would be amazing.
Meike
Fall is more subtle in California but you do feel a difference. The start of the “rainy” season would definitely be in my top five but I guess one can get excited when you have not seen a drop of rain since April.
Also: the evening light in fall is the best, changing leaves, shorter days and Halloween – I love how excited the kids get about it.
I can only think of a bottom three right now but here they are:
– back to school – summer was more relaxed and I did not have to juggle so many schedules
– plants going in hibernation – I know it is part of the cycle but it still makes me a little sad each year
– the beginning of the holiday planning – I think this has mostly to do with the fact that our families are so far away
Elisabeth
I think I’d like a subtle fall since it likely slowly eases in to more “winter” weather. Here you can get whiplash. One day it’s hot and the next there is snow!
There is something so special about the golden light this time of year.
Nicole MacPherson
I am LOVING fall in Kelowna. It’s so gorgeous here and fall lasts for months. This is in opposition to Calgary where fall lasts like ten days and gale-force winds would blow all the leaves off the trees in mid-September. So what I’m saying is I’m loving it! It’s harvest time and the Concords outside our door smell like grape juice, it’s really delightful.
Elisabeth
It all sounds AMAZING. And Calgary falls (and winters, and springs to be honest) sound rather miserable in comparison. You were so cheerful and optimistic in Calgary, but it must be so nice to sink in to the more moderate weather on the coast.