I find the quarter day argument rather nit-picking, and irrelevant over a span of, say, four years. But the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, with perihelion very close to a solstice, makes the northern winter / southern summer significantly shorter than half a year. A quick calculation suggests that the north pole gets about 11 3/4 hours sunshine per day on average and the south pole 12 1/4.
Chris Lusby Taylor Reading, England.
