There are relatively few people living south enough to have "cold and dark winters," anyway. The northern hemisphere is much more concentrated towards the north.

Most people live above 35°S where, at the most extreme, winter days are about 10 hours and a half long (plus about an hour of decent twilight). Temperatures obviously vary depending on region but they don't really get much below 10°C as far as I know.

So really, it's more like mostly bright and somewhat chilly.