Dreaming Of A White Christmas

Whenever you receive a Christmas card, or watch a television Christmas special, there is one thing which seems to unite them all – the presence of snow. This is something that has become as much a part of the Christmas message as anything. Perhaps it is because it looks so welcoming and bright and pure.

Perhaps it is because it makes the scene immediately identifiable as a winter one, and therefore links it to Christmas. But there are many people in the English-speaking world who have never seen a White Christmas, and wonder when they will.

It depends, of course, where you live. Because it is in the Southern Hemisphere, Australia has Christmas in the middle of its climatic summer. As well as this, Australia is a temperate country anyway, so the chances of snow at Christmas are roughly equivalent to those of a 100-degree heatwave in New York in January.

Even in the United Kingdom, which is known for its cold winters, snow tends to hold off until January for whatever reason. Though cold enough, the snow just doesn’t seem to have that sense of timing.

Nonetheless, whether you live somewhere that gets snow reliably just in the run-up to Christmas and then all the way through, or somewhere where it is unlikely to ever happen, the fact remains that, as a symbol of the day and the period, snow is something that is inextricably linked with Christmas. This holds true wherever you are, and is why we all know what Bing Crosby was singing about.