Meta:A look at the relationship between Christmas and snow.

Christmas and snow seem to go hand in hand with each other, after all who hasn’t heard the Christmas song; “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow” which has been done by multiple artists however Michael Buble is my favorite and therefore I have linked his version so that way you too can energize your Christmas spirit.  However, while for many people the idea of a Christmas without snow is just plain wrong, the original biblical story has no mention of snow whatsoever and it only snows in certain parts of Israel, namely the mountains, therefore perhaps our connection with Christmas and snow has less to do with the nativity story and more to do with our own history. Well, we decided to find out where exactly the association of snowflakes and Christmas began, as well as why we are still to this day obsessed with the idea of a ‘White Christmas’.

While many may be under the assumption that snow is heavily associated with Christmas because of the transition of former Pagan winter solstice observances into the Christmas feasts. However, those who labor under this assumption would be wrong; we owe our love of white Christmases to none other than the Victorian era. During this period the whole of London and much of England experienced what is fondly known as a mini Ice Age, at one point a winter fair was held on the frozen River Thames, as it was so frozen solid that no one was worried about possibly falling in. But the event that truly cemented the connection between snowflakes and Christmas time for many during this period is a book known as a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

The famous story set within the winter months teaches people the important lesson that spending time with our loved ones, spreading the good news and being in good spirits is far more important, especially in the time of Christmas, than being enraptured with material possessions and spending all of your time devoted to making money. In addition, another theory of why the Victorian society thought that Christmas and snowflakes just had to go hand in hand was the fact that Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert was originally from Germany, during the winter in Germany snow and ice abound, and therefore for him Christmas meant snow. Prince Albert had a hand in shaping other popular Christmas traditions, such as the popularizing the Christmas tree in England, which up until then had mainly been practiced by the Germanic peoples.

What truly seems to be accredited, at least in modern times, with helping to cement snow as an integral part of Christmas is a song by Bing Crosby known as “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas,” this songs huge popularity helped to lock in the snowflake, snow and winter chill as all being characteristic of iconic Christmas celebrations. A further fact that has helped with this is the advent and subsequent unilateral adoption of the snowman.

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Image 1 link:

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2012/03/04/00/36/snow-21979_960_720.jpg

Image 2 link:

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/12/25/21/59/snow-globe-1931044_960_720.jpg

Image 3 link:

https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/08/31/05/01/snowmen-2699483_960_720.jpg