You must be somewhere in the Great Lakes region of Ontario. As a former Minesotant, I know winter there is far more harsh than here!

I think it continues to get colder after the solstice because we continue to lose more heat than we gain despite the sun getting higher, just like how in summer the hottest days are after the other solstice and we continue to gain solar energy more than we lose it for a while.

Thanks to the weather in the Midwest, winter probably feels like a 6-month-long season there. Don't get lost in a blizzard!