I grew up in the northen parts of Scandinavia and i now live in central Europe. My theory is that how much you would enjoy winter is strongly correlated with the quality of the winter. The more south you go, and the more urban you go, the worse the winter is.

Living semi-rurally in a cold place is a good predictor for a good winter experience. In the cities, especially southern citites, it is worse. Slush, gravel, dark snow, rain, wet everywhere. And public transport is full of people with big jackets taking up too much space.

It is easy to have a mindset geared toward enjoying winter when that winter acutally has the possbility of being enjoyable. In a rainy cold dark urban center, not much so.