I've lived in this climate for half my childhood and all of my adult life, so I only get rare subjective glimpses of it.
We played in sub-zero weather as kids, building snowforts in the drifts, chasing each other around, and sliding down any slippery incline in our snowsuits. I suppose it must be the same as the pictures you see of Eskimo children playing. But we have always had all the amenities, so it never seemed odd to live in a lethal climate. You learn how far you can push it before your skin starts to actually freeze (first tingling, then numbness, then aching ... time to warm it up). When you get careless, that skin peels away like a sunburn.
It's not anything that most children in the US didn't do - we just did it in subzero weather (-18C).
I was surprised recently to find that the southern hemisphere has very few temperate deciduous forests. Half the USA is covered in them. I was searching for a place like our lake country, with mostly hardwood forest, but they're rare in the south half - mostly pine forest or jungle.
And very few places get truly cold in the winter - Chile, Argentina ... not much else.
It's only offered as a freebie right now but check them out. They have a bunch of Star Pupil crosses.
Might get a snow day! Yay!
I'm still hand shoveling! With a shovel! By hand! 
But that still leaves the front and back walks and the driveway.
