I suspect most of us agreed to fall backward this past weekend.

Some happily, some begrudgingly. I fall into the latter category, even though who doesn’t love a faux extra hour in their day?

But here we are, and there’s little point in holding a grumpy grudge about it. We must accept the cold months are here for the foreseeable future. This is particularly hard for me this year, after having just developed a taste for sweet summer.

So we’re cold and it’s dark, and what are we going to do about it? We’re going to enjoy the heck out of it, that’s what. Better that than mope around for the next six months. Because these days it doesn’t seem to get hot around here until June.

Ways to milk the season:

– Go Gothic: Let the outside ambience match the darkness inside your entertainment choices. I love a Gothic novel, and who writes them better than Daphne du Maurier, she of the famous 1938 classic, “Rebecca.” We can also probably hold her responsible for numerous cases of ornithophobia (a fear of birds), thanks to her 1952 short story, “The Birds,” which director Alfred Hitchcock turned into a movie. More du Maurier recommendations: “My Cousin Rachel,” “The House on the Strand,” and my favorite creepy crawly of hers, “Don’t Look Now,” which was also turned into a spectacular movie in 1973.

Tis also the season for Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” and Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” Or huddle up and give Hitchcock’s oeuvre a watch.

– Spend time outside: It’s important to find light in the darkness. In more ways than one. This might seem counterintuitive in the cold, but putting on all my clothes plus all my outdoor gear and going for a walk on an overcast, post-snowstorm day brings me joy. There’s something about embracing the bleakness that makes my melancholy soul hum with contentment.

A new ritual involves sitting on my deck in the pre-sunrise dark with a hot cup of something to wait for the return of the sun. And might I also recommend packing a thermos of hot tea and wandering around Evergreen or Fairview cemeteries? The trees are bare, the light is wan, and there could be no better time to commune with those who have come before us.

– Get learned: Trade your warm weather hikes and picnics for indoor adventures, like museums, historic sites and castles. Try Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, Western Museum of Mining & Industry, Glen Eyrie Castle, McAllister House, Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun and Miramont Castle in Manitou Springs.

– Warm up your insides: I’m fairly certain the way to a human heart is soup. If someone makes me a pot of soup, forget about it, I’m yours. And if I make you a pot of soup, forget about it, I’m also yours.

And promise me, for the love of Helios, that you’ll vastly minimize your intake of cold foods and beverages in the plummeting temperatures of fall and winter. This is not the time for icy smoothies, iced coffees or raw salads.

– Let there be light: Candles, of course, are a staple of the season. However, I don’t use the real ones anymore, after a furnace guy spent two hours cleaning mine several years ago, and told me the appliance smelled like candles, and that I’d almost ignited my house on fire because the furnace was so dirty from said candle smoke. Hello, electric candles. Perhaps your house is much bigger than mine, which might help better disperse candle smoke. Soy, bees, coconut and vegetable wax candles are also cleaner options.

– Season of the soak: While unappealing in the summer, a bath can’t be beat come fall. Throw in some Epsom salts or magnesium flakes, which can improve skin barrier function, enhance skin hydration, and reduce inflammation in dry skin, according to the National Institutes of Health. Click on your electric candle and turn up an ambient, Goth-y, noir-like soundtrack, like “Chinatown” by Jerry Goldsmith or “Twin Peaks” by Angelo Badalamenti.

– A treat a day keeps the seasonal affective disorder away: Christmas advent calendars are a staple in December, but why must we limit ourselves to one month of the year? Let’s do one every month, shall we? Who wouldn’t love a tiny surprise every day? And now’s the time to get them, before the masses have swooped in and scooped them up.

Some of these are outrageously priced – hundreds of dollars? no, thanks – but you can always head to the dollar store (or $1.25-$1.50 store), and pick up a bunch of the cheap chocolate ones.

Here are some fun ones: Stash Tea Advent Calendar, with 24 different hot tea bags, $20, stashtea.com; Serendipity Soy Candles’ Advent Candle Calendar, with 24 soy tea light candles, $69.95, serendipitysoycandles.com; Tony’s Chocolonely Assorted Chocolates Advent Calendar, $23, selfridges.com; Penzeys Advent (ADvEInt) Calendar, with 24 tablespoon-sized bags of different herbs and spices, $49.95; penzeys.com.

– Become a caveperson: Seek out establishments with roaring fires, find a friend with a fireplace, buy a portable outdoor fire pit or an indoor electric fireplace. Sit and stare at the flames. Fake or not, there’s something in our DNA that gravitates toward a flame. And if nothing else, roast a marshmallow over your gas stove or soy candle and call it good.

– Huddle: Might I recommend an electric blanket? It’s my favorite item come the dark and dank seasons. It goes everywhere I go around the house. And when I’m not using it, I turn it on low, lay it on the couch, and watch the dogs glue themselves to it like magnets.

– Honor the winter solstice: I’m playing the long game here. It’s not until Dec. 21, so you have plenty of time to come up with a small or big way to pay homage to the shortest, darkest day of the year. One year, before I almost blew up my house with a dirty furnace, I lit a bunch of candles in my living room, turned off the lights, and sat in the quiet dark under my electric blanket, thinking my thoughts, tending to my wounds, and contemplating what the return of the light might bring.