My personal definition for my region is based on freezing temps: never gets below freezing? That's summer. Gets consistently above freezing in the day but still often below at night? Spring/fall. Essentially never gets above freezing? Winter.
Winter starts here early to mid November, it's silly to think it doesn't until Dec 21st. Same with summer being in full swing long before the third week of June.
Having distinct seasons is nice I'll agree, although it can be extreme sometimes (over an 80°C temp swing between the end of Feb and end of June a couple of years ago).
Winter grows on me more every year, although the last few years have seen a trend where we get more random melting periods in the middle of winter and way less snow which kinda sucks for all the winter fun.