When do you start referring to a year in the past tense?

[Redway]

Would you start saying 2020 ‘was’ a challenging (or good) year by mid.-October or do you actually wait until the new year to make any sort of judgements about a year in terms of how it was?

[Ammi]

...for 2020, I would say that there has been some highlights but for me, they wouldn’t change that it’s been a challenging year in general with a world pandemic and lifestyle restrictions etc that we’ve never lived before...(...and obviously there will be personal things for each of us as well, related to national emergency situations that most countries have had...)...

[AnnieK]

I started referring to 2020 as a **** year in March tbh when it became pretty obvious that the whole year would get written off. I can't see 2021 being much better either

[DouglasS]

Earlier this year because by October it was apparent the remainder of the year was over