Speak for yourself! :P

To be fair, the OP's point is it's no where near Winter in Australia...

Leave it to the Yooper to point out Winter started 5 months ago for him ;)

That is exactly how I was taught, when did they change it?

Well, this winter is off to a slow start around here, in any case. Temperatures hardly fall below zero. Last winter was really mild as well, and subsequently all kinds of pets were/are plagued by fleas... Exciting times!
I can't wait for the cold to kill off all them nasty insects.

Oh, and in Germany it usually says "first day of winter" in the calendar, in case people get insecure or confused about what season it might possibly be :)

it creeps up on ya

but i remember as being always taugth that it was 21 december

Maybe a week after this Fall/ Winter sale ends there should be a Now it's Definitely Winter sale. And then a Winter in Australia Sale.

Legend has it a group of MPs once wrote to the Met Office asking when, precisely, Winter began and ended. The reply: 'Winter begins when all the leaves have fallen off the trees and ends when the bulbs start coming up again.'

Maybe it is a British Isles thing? I was taught since I was a little kid (I'm 29) that the Winter solstice marked the beggining of Winter, just as the summer solstice marks the beggining of Summer.

What I don't get about the Winter Solstice being the beginning is that the Solstice is actually the turn around, the shortest day of the year, after which the sun stays out longer and I've always kind of seen that as a final stretch, not a starting block.

There are always the official dates but unofficially (as a Troll - tinyE will understand) I consider it to start the first day snow sticks to the ground and ends the last day its gone.

Saying that I don't see winter up in the North East any more. I can't remember the last time we had a cold, white winter. Might as well make it an extended Autumn at this rate.

Ironically enough we consider everyone else to be trolls since everyone else lives under (south of) the bridge.

Then I 'm just a somewhat nearby troll as a Lowper ;)

Don't worry, there'll be an actual winter sale in a week and a half.