The key to hunting in the cold is to dress appropriately.
Layer hunting clothes and use all cotton on the first layer to wick perspiration away from the body. Nothing feels worse then being in damp hunting clothes that has polyester in the fabric.
Some of the best cold weather gear up and until a couple of years ago was the traditional Woolrich hunting outfits. Being from Pennsylvania -you couldn't help but to grow up around the red and black checked hunting suits. Everybody had one and nobody actually ever froze to death wearing one. I still have several Woolrich hunting shirts - which I wear, even though I am allergic to wool. It makes me feel itchy.
Thinsulate and Gortex is wonderful insulators.
But I always try to make sure that I use the proper boots for the occasion. I use hiking boots when I walk, Boots with taller uppers when I walk in deep snow and I have pac boots that I wear when I am sitting. The secret to being outdoors all day is to use the proper boots - because if your feet are cold, the rest of your body will be cold.
The other secret is to carry several sets of gloves. If your hands are cold, your whole body is going to be cold.
If it is cold outside and the wind is blowing, stay out of the tree stand. It is better to stand on the ground and stay warm and stay in the woods all day then to sit in a tree stand for two or three hours and then have to leave because you got cold, only to find out that 15 minutes after you left, someone else shot a nice deer, right under your tree stand.
Me personally - I don't get cold because I have a Kerosun heater in my tree stand. I built a box around my heater and I call this my fire place. It keeps me toasty warm, even on the coldest of days.
I prefer a semi permanent stand over a temporary stand that is not warm. A good hunting spot will produce good deer year after year as long as you take care of your hunting spot and improve the situation from time to time by cutting away brush from shooting lanes and planting food sources in the summertime.
The problem with most people that hunts is that they hunt several weeks out of the year, and the rest of the year, they refuse to invest a single dime into improving their hunting grounds.
They believe that as long as farmer Brown plants corn and as long as the trees produces acorns that there will always be deer.
Then the year comes along where there is no acorns and farmer Brown does not plant any crops and then they do not see anything and then they believe that there are no more deer left in their area.
Most times they just moved down the road to a better situation.
Its not uncommon in my area for a deer to live on 10 square miles of land. They can run a mile in about a minute and go from one hill top to another as easily as you can call your wife on a cell phone and tell her that you are coming home for lunch because you are cold and have not seen anything all day.