I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Well, whilst this photo does have a snowman in it, sadly the weather here is grey, damp and chilly. Still, there's no harm in dreaming, is there?

Since the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in September 1752, I suppose it's understandable that we don't have a white Christmas very often. Though, to be fair, much of the north of England and Scotland DO have snow on the ground during the festive season. 

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/snow/white-christmas

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/snow/snow-at-christmas

However, since I have lived in the South of England since 1980, I cannot remember even one snowy Christmas. Actually, many a Christmas Day has dawned warm, damp and gloomy - to the point that I find myself now dreaming of a cold, possibly frosty, Christmas - not a very catchy song title!

It's amazing how much the weather affects everything we do and how we remember events is often coloured by the weather. I don't know whether the amount of discussion about our climate is unique to Great Britain or not.  I imagine the fact that we have a Temperate Maritime climate explains why we can have such wildly varying weather, with bright hot sunshine one day and foul, torrential rain the next (or even on the same day) and that in itself certainly provides a topic for conversation with anyone, whether friend, family or a stranger at the bus stop.

My best snowy memories are of being snowed in, in Constantine, a village in South West Cornwall just after Christmas and into the New Year in around 1979. It was just awesome! 

When we went to bed the night before it snowed, there was a really heavy gale blowing but no expectation of snow. The next morning, when I woke up, I couldn't understand why my bedroom seemed to be so bright. It was very cold, too, so I quickly threw my dressing gown and slippers on and nipped downstairs to let the mewing cat out. Imagine her (and my) surprise when I opened the kitchen door and she leapt out - to disappear into a drift of snow!

She emerged somewhat ruffled and, daintily trying to shake the snow off her paws, disappeared up the short garden to do her business and then turned tail and rushed back into the house to curl up in front of the fire.

What followed were several days of the best kind of fun: family walks and explorations in a snowy landscape, encountering huge icicles hanging off the sides of banks leaning over snow blocked roads; snowball fights; snowman building; tobogganing (well, tea-traying!) and discovering that when you climb a snowy field, the snow on the other side of the hedge can be several feet deeper than the side you are on!

Fortunately, the village still had a bakery back then and there is a dairy farm at each end, so fresh bread and milk were not a problem! Nothing quite like stomping up a steep Fore Street to collect freshly baked bread and then skidding and sliding back down the hill to enjoy thick slices of bread and marmelade with a steaming hot cup of tea in front of a blazing fire - heaven :)

Of course, snow fall, especially heavy snow fall, can cause all sorts of problems for many people so I suppose I should be grateful for our usual soggy Christmas Days that enable family and friends to reach each other and spend time together. After all, the thing that is most important at Christmastime is who you spend your time with, not what you get.