By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Lifestyle Blogger
When the holidays arrive, this is more than a time for stuffing yourself on turkey (and football), of yuletide, decorated pop-up themed restaurants, 12 bars pub crawls and spending quality time with the family while opening gifts. It’s also cuffing season, the unofficial time that runs from October thru Valentine’s Day when single people seek temporary companionship.
Yes, cuffing season is a real thing, tho only for people in some parts of the country. In others places, just the opposite is the case.
The term cuffing comes from being “handcuffed” to, or tied down with, someone during the winter. Once spring arrives, those people release themselves from the constraints to become unattached, free to roam the warm and sunny landscape of the single person’s playground. Cuffing is a slang term popularized by rappers like Fabolous tho it’s been around for decades.
Cuffing is most popular in cold-weather climates: the East Coast, Midwest and Pacific Northwest. Like a cold front, it can make its way down south and reach into parts of California.
But not where I live, which is Southern California. Not in the LA coastal community of Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach. And you are unlikely to encounter it in Orange County’s Newport Beach or San Diego’s Pacific Beach. There, where single people roam and even married people have a ball, the only cuffing that takes place is by accident, not design. I supect the same is true in other warm weather places such as South Florida, the St. Pete/Tampa Bay area and Honolulu.
Many single that people I know – well, the guys anyway – will disengage from relationships during this time because they don’t want to meet the girl’s family or buy her gifts. They certainly don’t want to be tied down on Valentine’s Day with its unwritten obligations of giving her roses, buying her a box of chocolates and taking her to a quiet (and expensive) romantic dinner. I have known several guys who have broken up with girls just before Christmas or Valentine’s Day for those very reasons.
This does not make them heartless souls. They simply know that they will not marry that girl and don’t want to have a serious relationship with her. They are willing to take their chances as a single people. They prefer to test the free market at places like Hideaway or Lahaina Beach House (PB), Mutt Lynch’s (Newport Beach) and Sharkeez (Hermosa Beach). Plus with Santa-themed pub crawls and holiday-themed bars during Christmas and the day before Valentine’s Day being one of the biggest pickup nights of the year, those are perfect times to be single.
Yet for people in certain climates, cuffing season provides a warm and cozy way to get through the winter months.
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