Hi there,

We have now finished one third of 2026. Congratulations, you made it!
The winter is over and better days are ahead.

I know different people like different parts of the year for varying reasons. My sister, for example, really likes seasons. She likes it that summer is warm, winter is cold, fall is rainy and spring is neither here nor there.
I am the exact opposite. If I was in charge of the weather, it would always be 25 degrees wherever I happen to be at that moment.

There is, of course, no accounting for taste, and everybody has their own reasons for their preferences but, as a sort of exercise, I decided to make this helpful ranking of months, for your convenience.

Disclaimer: I did not do any research or collect any data on the matter, this is just my personal opinion.

Here we go!

12. January.

January is the Monday of months. It is dull and gray and miserable. Like Monday, everyone I know hates it and would rather stay in bed for the duration. Add in the weird inclination of people to all of a sudden get healthy by going to the gym, eating healthy and, god forbid, taking part in Dry January, and you have the heap of misery that is January.

To make it somewhat bearable, and as a counter protest to Dry January, I have started Rye January a few years ago. Every day in January,  I have either a rye beer or a glass of rye whiskey.

Even the NFL playoffs can’t save January from the bottom ranking.

Fuck January.

When will this month end?? 

11. February

February is January’s little brother. It is marginally less miserable but still sucks. It is still cold and dark but at least everyone has given up on the gym after 3 weeks of January so the pub gets a bit busier again.

Also- the Superbowl is on, which is a small flicker of joy in this otherwise shitty month.

When can we go home? 

10. November

November is the lead up to winter, which sucks but, fortunately, due to global warming it is not as cold and shitty as it was 20 or 25 years ago. Still not a great month though. Winter is definitely setting in, the days are dark and short and cloudy.

But hey, at least we have Christmas to look forward to.

Don’t worry! Christmas is just on the other side of the hill!!

9. October

Another dark and kind-of-cold month. October is not as crappy as November and it has Halloween, but it’s still not a great month. Add in the start of the rainy season in Ireland and you’re guaranteed to be cold, wet and miserable. Pass.

Boooh! 

8. December

It’s the dead of winter, it’s generally cold and dark, and a lot of jobs have strict end-of-year deadlines to meet.

But hey, it’s also Christmas, which means long, lazy days of doing little more than eating, drinking and watching old Chevy Chase movies so December has that going for it.

It’s a Christmas Miracle!

7. March

March has ups and downs. The weather can be nice, but it can easily turn from “it’s almost spring!” to “Fuck, this feels like October again”.

But, March also has St. Patrick’s day and we’re getting to the business end of most European football seasons.

Another big plus: baseball season gets underway.

Baseball Season! 

6. April

April is one of those also-ran months. There’s nothing in it that’s really worth looking forward to, other than maybe some very early (beer) festivals and the odd sunny spell. If April was a person at a party, it would be that person who nobody remembers 3 minutes after they walked out the door.

It’s okay, I wouldn’t remember me either.

5. May

This is the time of year when things finally start to look up. Trees are getting greener, flowers start flowering, the Mikkeller beer festival is on in Copenhagen, the days are getting longer and the basketball play offs are on. You realize that Life Will Be Good Again.

Party Time!

4. June

June is when things really get better. Summer is in the air, festival season is starting, you don’t need a jacket anymore and you can walk around without getting rained on, most of the time. Cities are starting up their summer schedules with outdoor events, parades and terrace seating areas outside of bars fill up daily.

June 1st is also World Billboard Day!

3. August

August is generally nice and warm, you can comfortably drink outside and even in Ireland it’s normally sunny and rain free and festival season reaches its peak. There are a lot of tourists around but, at the same time, a lot of locals are on holiday.
August is nice.

Festival season means party time! 

2. July

July is just about perfect. School children are out for the summer (downside) but most of them are on holiday with their families elsewhere (upside). The weather is warm and sunny, festival season is in full swing , people are in a good mood and, hey, it’s also my birthday!

I like July.

Happy Birthday to Me! 

1. September

September is my favorite month of the year.
The weather is still warm and summery. You can walk around without a jacket on, rain is still a distant worry, life just happily ticks along, ignoring the fact that fall is lurking around the corner.
In the USA, it’s not as swelteringly hot as it is in mid summer and, while everyone has to go back to work or school, I go on holiday. Usually to the USA for which September is the perfect time to visit. New York is my favorite city in the world, and in September it’s just about perfect.

September wins the gold medal for months of the year.

Doesn’t that look glorious?

So, that was my ranking of the months of the year. Do you agree? Let me know!

Photo credits:

January- This is a cut out from the cover artwork of the album The Silence of December by Dutch Black Metal band Deinonychus. 

This artwork is from the re-release, the original cover was black and gray. 

Yes, it says December, but I find the dark, shadowy figure wandering through the desolate frozen wasteland a perfect fit for January. 

You can check the album here:  https://mykingdommusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-silence-of-december

February- This is a photo from the NFL second round play off game between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders, played at the Foxboro Stadium on January 19, 2002. A brutal snowstorm raged over Eastern Massachusetts during the entire game, making normal gameplay nearly impossible. Only two touchdowns were scored in the game, with most points coming from field goals. The Patriots won the game 16-13  through an extra time field goal, and would go on to win the Superbowl that year. This game is referred to as the SnowBowl. 

November- This is cut out from the cover artwork of Watching from a Distance by British Doom Metal band Warning. It’s one of the darkest and most haunting albums ever released, is generally considered to be one of the most influential albums in the history of Doom Metal and the 12 minute title track invokes intense feelings of fear, emptiness and despair. An absolute classic.

If you want to check out this masterpiece, have a listen here:

https://warningdoom.bandcamp.com/album/watching-from-a-distance

October- This is just a Halloween decoration I lifted off Amazon. 

December- This photo shows Chevy Chase and Beverley D’Angelo, playing Clark and Ellen Griswold in the classic 1989 Christmas movie The National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. 

March- This is a photo of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs and the most beautiful Major League Baseball stadium in America. 

For other images of beautiful baseball stadiums, Google Les Murakami Stadium, Honolulu and Staten Island Yankees Stadium, New York.

April- The photo is from the 1999 cult movie Office Space, in which two colleagues, stuck in dead end jobs with a David Brent-level annoying boss, decide to take matters into their own hands by skimming off fractions of a cent from each transaction the company processes. They figure they’d make some extra beer money for the weekends but find out that, after only a few days, they have already amassed a sum of 300.000 Dollars which is going to be a problem. It’s a great movie and if you haven’t seen it yet, go watch it. The photo shows the character called Michael Bolton, a non descript guy sitting in a gray cubicle, wearing a gray shirt and gray tie doing a job that nobody would ever notice if it wasn’t done anymore from tomorrow. The only reason people remember him is because of his name that he shares with the dull elevator music singer Michael Bolton, which often makes him the butt of jokes around the office. When someone asks him why he doesn’t just change his name to get away from it, he fires off the legendary reply “Why do I have to change my name? He’s the one who sucks!”.

The quote under the photo comes from another 1999 movie, American Beauty, which tells the story of 40-something Lester Burnham, a frustrated salary man who, when he is made redundant, coerces his employer into giving him a year’s salary on the condition he keeps his mouth shut about several incidents at the company that may ruin the company. The quote comes from the scene where his manic realtor wife drags him along to some networking event and, when she introduces him to some acquaintance within the real estate business, who says “Ah, nice to finally meet you”, Lester replies by saying “We actually met last year. But that’s okay, I wouldn’t remember me either”.

American Beauty won 5 Oscars, including Best Movie, Best Director and Best Actor, for Kevin Spacey’s portrayal of Lester Burnham.

May- This is the banner that hangs above the entrance of the Oksnehalle in Copenhagen, the venue of the Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen, one of the world’s most famous beer festivals.

June- I couldn’t really come up with an idea for a June photo so I started digging around the internet and found that June 1st is World Billboard Day, so here you have a photo of a funny billboard.

August- This is photo of the Lowlands festival in the Netherlands in 1997. I was at this festival myself and had a great time.

July- Fourth of July fireworks in San Diego, California.

September- Central Park, New York, in summer. Doesn’t it look glorious?