I'm like you; I hate the cold and I dislike the darkness of winter in the UK. At this time of year I keep telling myself, "theres 1.5 minutes more daylight at both ends of the day, every day. That makes it 20 minutes brighter each week! Come on Tom, you'll soon begin to notice it!"
It was only 6 years ago that I first noticed (because I had to drive home at around 1:30am) that during mid June, the sky doesn't get totally black on the horizon, you can see a faint glimmer of sunlight remaining on the horizon all through the night, for about two weeks or so. Now, each year, come mid June, I make a point of driving out in the middle of the night to observe (and in a sense, to "celebrate") this annual peak of brightness. Looking forward to this is what keeps me going during February.