You'll never understand the value of proper snow tires until you've actually had them. Sure you can drive with all season tires but the ability of snow tires, even cheap ones, in bad conditions is totally worth it.

I used to drive a rear wheel drive diesel Mercedes, perfect snow car, skinny tires, heavy car, low power, manual transmission. I went places in the snow that 4wd trucks couldn't follow. As long as I didn't high center we could get there.