A White Christmas - What is It?

sn't Christmas the only moment in the winter when we want snow?  Yes! What makes snow such an essential part of the Christmas landscape?  What makes a White Christmas so desirable?  In fact, in the U.S. there is WCA - White Christmas Anticipation. The website bigthink shows the map of the U.S., Canada and Europe for the percent chance of a White Christmas. Did you know there's an official definition  of White Christmas? From Wikipedia:  "In most countries, it simply means that the ground is covered by snow at Christmas, but some countries have more strict definitions. In the United States, the official definition of a white Christmas is that there has to be a snow depth of at least 1 in or 2.5 cm at 7:00 a.m. local time on Christmas morning, and in Canada the official definition is that there has to be more than 2 cm (0.79 in) on the ground on Christmas Day at 7 am".   Our Environment Canada site has this chart - Amount of snowfall recorded in centimetres for major cities across Canada from 1955 - 2015.  Here are the Definitions of the columns: % Chance:  probability of a white Christmas (snow on the ground of 2 cm or more on Christmas morning at 7 a.m. EST) for full period of 61 years % Chance now:  for children today based on period 1996-2015 % Chance before:  for parents today when they were children based on period 1965-1984 Perfect Christmas:  snow on the ground of 2 cm or more on Christmas morning and snow in the air sometime Christmas day, i.e., a measurable snowfall on Christmas based on period 1955-2007 Snow depth now:  average depth of snow on the ground (cm) on Christmas morning from 1994 to 2015 At the bigthink site, it shows the maps of Canada, U.S. and Europe so you can see the distribution of White Christmases.  I hadn't realized how much of the U.S. has such a low probability of snow, and how much of Canada has a high probability of snow.  Our White Christmas distribution looks like a mirror reflection.  And the forecast for this Christmas? Grimsby has a freezing rain changing to snow warning today - and a white Christmas is forecast. Our pictures show last year's visit to the Guelph Arboretum on a very snowy day before Christmas.

Christmas Countdown Headlines

Everyone wants the Christmas Countdown in their headlines.  CNBC's headline today "Wall Street eyes triple-digit gains as Christmas countdown begins".  And doubled that play with this  subheading:  "Oil plays the role of Grinch this year". The countdown of the year's best already started last week in the Globe and Mail.  Today, on the side panel of the Christmas Countdown retrievals is Most expensive celebrity home listings of 2015 and we find out that Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch was listed at $100 million and the Neverland clock out front remains in place with the return to the name of the ranch before Jackson 'Sycamore Valley Ranch' . It has 2,700 acres. There's the question of how Christmas is celebrated by the Jewish.  The top 5 Christmas songs were written by Jews, so music would be a component.  They were written during the great American Songbook period, when every great Hollywood songwriter was Jewish: "White Christmas" - Written by Irving Berlin, Bing Crosby's version is the best selling single of all time "The Christmas song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire") - Written by Bob Wells and Mel Torme and recorded four times by Nat King Cole "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" - Sammy Cahn wrote the song in 1945, during a heatwave in Los Angeles "Santa Baby" - written by Joan Javits and made famous by Eartha Kitt "Winter Wonderland" - written in 1934 and recorded by more than 200 singers Our floral portrait of an amaryllis today celebrates the first song, White Christmas.