I think on the family cruiser carrying the kid you go with the crazy safe, crazy good Xice.
Yeah the trick is that this is my sporty DD for now and in ~2 years it will be the family mule. I will have Wintersports on the Z4 when that rolls around. Meh. Maybe flip a coin. My wife likes sportier tires too.
Just get the Sport Editions. What's the downside? ![Tongue :P](https://www.autos.ca/forum/Smileys/CarTalk/tongue.gif)
I think you have to be honest with yourself about where you drive in the winter. If you stay in town 99% of the time, a very sporty tire will be great but if you spend every weekend up in snow country, you might want to give up some sporty feel for better snow traction.
When I had my Mazda6 I went for more snow vs sport one year and hated them. The marshmallow ride drove me crazy every time that I had to sell them and replaced them with a sportier tire.
The biggest problem with tires is you can only go by reviews and then hope you made the right choice.