Well, it&#x27;s not like starting winter on December 1 isn&#x27;t a lie as well – average &quot;meteorological winter&quot; starts Dec 8, a week later. The coldest quarter is also, of course, different every year, and not known until after the fact.<p>We use astronomical seasons instead because they are predictable, they are basically the same every year, and they definitively take place on a given date.<p>For the question of starting winter on the solstice vs halfway between solstice and equinox, we do get more cold weather after solstice than before. I think this is less important though – starting halfway between has made sense to me ever since I was a kid and learned what solstice and equinox meant.