Sort-of unpopular opinion: November is the REAL most depressing month. Oh, sure. You guys can piss and moan about January all you want. But January's not truly depressing, it's just...boring. And it feels boring because it's the New Year, there's not much to do, you feel unfulfilled, Christmas is over, and you're just like "okay, now what?". I guess you could say that January is depressing in a more "passive" sense. Like, it's not inherently supposed to bum you out, but some people feel the big sad anyway. The Big January Sad™ can be fought by actually fighting away the boredom, and it is beatable.
November, however, is ACTIVELY depressing. This is the month you hate. This month contains cold weather and the crap part of fall, where there's nonstop rain and/or snow, cold winds, everything's dead and gray, etc. It also contains early winter, which thanks to climate change, is usually just a big ball of grey and brown. You might get the occasional snow, but only for a few days, and then it'll either freeze it over into ice, or rain so hard that it washes most of the snow away. There's also Remembrance Day, which is designed to mourn the fallen soldiers in...well, in ANY war, really. If World Wars 1 and 2 didn't teach us anything, perhaps nothing will. Many parts of the world are still very much at war as we speak, even if they avoid referring to it as that. It's a grim reminder that war really doesn't change. I'm also glad that I'm not American, because you guys have to do Thanksgiving during this month, for some reason. In Canada, we don't do much: it's just an excuse to join up with the family and eat dinner, and that's it. It's about thanks for a bountiful harvest. That's about it. But in America, you have a shit ton of capitalism tacked on over that: sports events, commercials, and the like. And that's assuming you even LIKE your families! Which might be a bit harder, given the current situation you guys are in...
Then there's the whole "Black Friday" bullshit, where people fight tooth and nail to get stuff that's on sale so they don't have to spend as much during the month of December. I would know: my birthday's in December, and my parents would ALWAYS have a time limit (e.g. after Halloween) for me to say what I wanted for my birthday because they'd be racing to get it on sale. Except here's the thing: it still is bullshit. There are times when the "deals" aren't actually cheaper, and are pretty much the same as what they might be at any other time. So it's stupid to stress over.
Also, Halloween's over. Which really sucks, because I love Halloween, and the fallout is the worst. Except I'm not ready for Christmas. I never have been. It's a lovely holiday, but it's not for me. I'm an adult, which means the magic is gone, and has been gone since about age 9. Really, this holiday only works if you're close with your family, or if you have one of your own, because the movies and music are complete crap, and everybody over the age of 10 knows it.
There's a reason why people use November as a crutch for quitting addictions. If you wanna quit junk food/alcohol/cocaine/whatever, that's fine by me. But you could also do that in January. Except you never hear about people doing that in January. And for what? I feel like the start of the New Year is a better time to quit something, rather than just before the end of the old one.
Anyways, that's pretty much why I think November is the worst month. Sorry for the rant. If it makes you feel any better, I suggest watching "Nightmare Before Christmas" during this time. It's not really a Christmas film (despite me wanting it to be), but it's definitely not a Halloween film either. So I guess the best time to watch it is November, if you actually want to do that.
