Winter is fun – if, you know, it’s snowing, you’re a kid and/or you’re cuddled up on the sofa with a hot chocolate. While we may be in March, it doesn’t look like summer sun is arriving any time soon, so how do you survive this miserable winter weather? According to sexual health and wellness writer Scott Alden, the one saving grace of slogging it out through the sleet, rain and wind is the chance of a cute and cuddly wintery kiss. Alden notes, ‘If this season has one redeeming quality for urban adults, the winter kiss has got to be it. Maybe it’s only by contrast to my general misery, but cold-weather smooches always feel just a dash more romantic.’ But are wintery kisses really that romantic? Whether you do these already, or you fancy trying something new this winter, here are eight cold-weather kisses to help get you through the winter.
1. The Hands-in-Pockets Kiss: Alden describes, ‘You’re so cold. So cold. Your hands are still basically unusable in two layers of gloves. But you will not be stopped. You bump your bundled bodies together like awkward teenage walruses and somehow find each other’s face. There’s a quick peck, but you make it count and—for a split second—you’re warm all over.’
2. The You’re Cold/He’s Warm Kiss: ‘After fumbling the keys with your mittened hands and struggling with a frozen lock, you have finally arrived indoors,’ Alden outlines. ‘Your cardigan-wearing lover, who has been home tending the hearth, gasps at the windblown sight of you and rushes to your side. He presses his toasty lips against your frozen ones and it’s like drinking a cup of hot cocoa that loves you back.’
3. The Snowglobe Kiss: ‘You know how it gets real quiet on a snowy night?’ asks Alden. ‘It’s easy to feel like you’re the only two people in your very own miniature world, and since there’s no one else around…’
4. The Eskimo Kiss: Alden notes, ‘Leave it to the Eskimos, inventors of houses made of snow and shoes that keep you from falling in it, to find a practical yet adorable solution to kissing in extreme cold. The Eskimo kiss not only prevents wind-chapped lips from ever having to touch but also warms the oft-neglected tip of your nose.’
5. The Under-the-Blanket Kiss: ‘On nights like this, the two of you can allow no part of your body to be exposed,’ explains Alden. ‘Covers must go over your head. Toes must be pulled as far away from the foot of the bed as possible. There you are. Forehead to forehead, curled into little balls, just one goodnight kiss away officially being the cutest two people in the entire world.’
6. The Two-Flavour Kiss: Alden points out, ‘If you expect to be kissing anyone between late November and early April, you know you’d better have an effective lip lubricant on hand at all times. Yours is Honey Eucalyptus, your paramour’s is Pink Grapefruit and when they meet it’s a flavour explosion.’
7. The “Don’t Kiss Me, I’m Sick” Kiss: ‘You try to warn him; “Don’t! I think I’m getting that thing that’s been going around,”’ Alden details. ‘Inevitably, he ends up kissing you anyway because he just can’t stand not to. Now, that’s more romantic than Shakespeare’s complete sonnets spelled out in rose petals up the bedroom stairs.’
8. The Gingerbread Latte Kiss: Alden asserts, ‘The taste of a seasonally available Starbucks Gingerbread Latte is best experienced as a faint whisper on someone else’s lips.’