Let's talk about Seasons!

I usually set seasons to 10 days each just to prevent the holidays from occurring on the same day of the week. For desert and tropical worlds (like Strangetown and Isla Paradiso) I'll modify that and set winter to 5 days and summer to 15. I use Tempest to set the temperatures above freezing for Fall and Spring. Unfortunately that doesn't prevent plants from going dormant in early fall, but at least freshwater fishing is available for most of the year. I also reduce the chance of rain in Summer, Spring, and Fall and increase the chance of sunny days, particularly in Summer. The only weather I regularly toggle in Options is hail. Sometimes hail lasts for far too long no matter my Tempest settings, so sometimes I'll turn it off completely.

University is a big exception. I set seasons to 14 days in that world since my sims usually attend 2 week terms. I like having the season remain constant over the term.