Snowflakes are gently falling.

The grass and lawn furniture are covered in white.

From the comfort of my living room window, the scene reminds me of every sentimental Christmas movie I’ve ever seen.

But there’s a downside to the quiet covering. That fluffy white blanket covering our Southern lawns means it’s beyond cold outside. Phrases like “arctic air” and “bitter cold” are being used to describe Winter Storm Enzo.

I dread opening the door.

Having this much snow in these parts is unusual, and it’s great to see people having so much fun in this once-in-a-generation storm.

People are embracing the cold, building snowmen and having snowball fights.

They’re making snow angels and using kiddie swimming pools to sled down the sides of the ditch.

It’s a lot of fun, but what does that get them?

Wet clothes, cold faces and fingers so cold they feel like they’re going to break off.

I’ll take summer heat over winter cold any day of the week.

For starters, I’m washing twice as many clothes when it’s winter. One days’ worth of cold-weather clothes and accessories is enough for a super load.

Contrast that with summer.

I can wait a week to wash clothes because lightweight summer clothes don’t take up much room in the washer. No need for wool socks, long pants or jackets in the summer months.

There’s also the cost of clothes.

The winter jacket alone will set you back $80 and that’s if you can find a heavy one here. You also need gloves, a hat, boots and a heavy scarf. Summer shorts, a T-shirt and flip flops are a lot cheaper.

Also, Southerners are accustomed to the heat.

In the summer, we can cool off with snow cones or chew on ice in an air-conditioned spot.

But the cold? We’re ill-prepared. We panic. We stress about temperatures in the teens. We clear all the shelves in the grocery stores.

Does that mean we’re wimps? Not at all. Bring on a heat wave or a hurricane and we’ll show you Southern grit.

We can prepare for a tropical hurricane, a monsoon and a prolonged drought in a moment’s notice.

We own beach umbrellas, lawn chairs and sun visors, not snowplows, tire chains or snow shovels.

We don’t own heavy parkas lined with fake fur.

We don’t own snow boots, gloves or heavy hats.

Southerners own well-used beach bags filled with sunscreen, mosquito repellent and Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer for jellyfish bites.

Living in the North does require knowledge we don’t have. Deep South residents haven’t a clue how to defrost icy windshields, shovel snow from sidewalks or how to spot black ice.

But a cold-weather person doesn’t know shade is more important than location in a parking lot, cracking the windows a half inch is mandatory if your vehicle is in the sun and to never grab a metal car handle if the vehicle’s been exposed to the afternoon summer sun.

We’re built for the heat, and we’ll demonstrate a hundred different ways we’ve learned to live with scorching temperatures.

We’ll drag out our fans, both the big box ones and the cheap personal fans that spray air and water on your face and sit comfortably outside at a baseball game.

We’ll remind you that high humidity keeps your skin looking younger longer unlike dry cold air that dries your skin out and ages you prematurely.

I will admit there’s one major positive and one hopeful possibility about frigid cold weather.

The definite positive – no snakes.

The possibility – perhaps this layer of snow can do what we’ve been unable to do for the past 50 years – kill fire ants.

If that happens, then Winter Storm Enzo would’ve been worth it.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.