In many parts of the world, weather cycles through the four seasons like clockwork: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Earth's rotation causes day and night, but the revolution (or orbit) of Earth around the sun, combined with the tilt of the Earth's axis, is what causes seasons.

That tilt is what causes seasons, not our distance from the sun. The December solstice is the time of year the Northern Hemisphere is tilted most away from the sun.