Is Cuffing Season the Best Time to Find Love?

Halloween, Christmas, New Year—the season of snow, Santa Claus, and overindulgence is upon us. It’s the best time of year to spend time with loved ones, whether you’re eating with family or snuggling up with partners, but what if you don’t have anyone to snuggle with?

It’s a dilemma that countless singletons face, leading many dating experts to dub this period “cuffing season”, so-called because it’s the season when people seek to get “cuffed” or “tied down”. The question is, does cuffing season exist, and if so, is it a good season to find love?

Is Cuffing Season Real?

Cuffing season begins in October when the weather starts getting colder and ends in March once things warm up. The idea is that you start looking for love in the run-up to the holidays and by March you either commit to the relationship or you sever ties and look forward to spring and summer flings.

The idea of cuffing season may have started as a joke, but it seems to be based on real science. Researchers in the UK have even found a significant peak in conceptions over the Christmas holiday. Furthermore, online dating sites note that their greatest number of signups occur in early January.

Around this time, people are bombarded with images of happy couples and families, whether they’re relaxing around the fire or enjoying a Christmas lunch. Combine this with the fact that people want to couple up so they don’t spend those cold nights alone, and it’s fair to say that cuffing season is much more than just a meme.

Is it the Best Time to Find Love?

The nights are shorter, the weather is colder—it doesn’t seem like a great time to find love. However, it’s cuffing season, so there are more singletons looking for love during this time and they’re also more receptive. People are generally happier as well, especially in the run-up to Christmas.

Say what you want about commercialism and incessant Christmas music, but there’s always a lot of romance in the air during Christmas. If you’re single and seeking someone to spend the winter months with, cuffing season is the perfect time to get your own share of romance.

How to Find Love During Cuffing Season

Now that we’ve established this is a great time to find love, how can you improve your chances of finding that special someone on dating websites during cuffing season?

1. Stay Active

More singletons are active on dating websites during the winter months. In the summer, they’re lounging on beaches, enjoying drinks with friends, and going on holiday. In the winter, they’re spending more time at home alone, refusing to play gooseberry with their married friends who are enjoying late lunches and cosy nights-in.

Not only are singletons more willing to chat with prospective partners and go on dates, but they also spend more of their time on their phones and computers, checking messages on Zoosk or answering questions on eHarmony.

The more active you are during these times, the more likely you are to find love.

2. Update

Update your profile with the winter months in mind. Make sure you’ve answered all the questions and given the algorithms everything they need to find you the perfect match, and then move onto your pictures and descriptions.

Research suggests that cuffing season is all about building relationships to replicate the happy, smiling, cosy families we see on TV adverts and in films. Your profile should represent that—don’t be scared to smile and be as homely and happy as you can be.

3. Don’t be Desperate

This may be the season of love and relationships, but that doesn’t mean you should dive-in head-first and accept the first relationship that you find. It could result in a short, sharp, and disappointing liaison, one that keeps you busy during the holidays but then fades away when spring rolls around.

Spend more time talking with your match online and try to get to know them before agreeing to a date. There’s no shame in talking to many people at once; you’re single, so play the field and set up dates with the ones you like the most.

4. Take Them on an Original Date

Going for coffee is great, but it’s also a little boring. It’s cold, it’s miserable, so take them somewhere unique and give them an experience that will warm them up. Make it seasonal, traditional—take them ice staking on an evening, go for a Christmas picnic in the park, enjoy drinks by an open fire.

If you prefer a more traditional date, then take them for a film, but give the romantic comedy a miss. Research suggests that the emotions we feel when scared can elicit feelings of love, confidence, and calm, and they can make us feel closer and more connected to the person we’re with. Horror films are therefore much more likely to provoke feelings of love and companionship.

5. Look for Friendship

Think about the best couples that you know, what makes them special, unique, perfect? Is it because they’re good looking and take great pictures together? Is it because they’re a similar age, work in the same profession, or went to the same school? Or, more likely, is it because they get along like best friends and seem to love spending time with each other?

If you want to find love, you need to find someone who is your best friend as well as your partner. It can be hard to find someone you’re attracted to physically and emotionally, but if you approach dating as if you’re looking for a friend and not a lover, you’ll be more successful.

Look for similar interests and conversations that flow seamlessly and effortlessly, as opposed to just a great smile.

6. Forget About “Opposites Attract”

The idea that opposites attract is a complete fallacy. It’s true that people can fall in love and stay together forever even if they don’t have the same hobbies or tastes in music, but if they don’t share the same values then the relationship is doomed.

Not liking football when your boyfriend is a Sunday league player is fine and shouldn’t cause any issues, but if your ideological and political preferences are polar opposites, it won’t work out.

Summary: The Season to Find Love

Autumn and winter are great times to find love and ensure you don’t spend Christmas, New Year, and Valentine’s Day alone. However, it’s not something you should rush into, and spending the season by yourself is always preferable to spending it with a stranger that you don’t really like.

So, keep the above tips in mind as you traverse this season and seek to find that perfect someone before March rolls around.