It’s begining to look alot like Christmas… Or is it?
Weeeellll… We are now full into Lake Effect Snow season here, which means that everything here is looking nice and Christmas-y (read white, fluffy and cold). My garden looks like a nicly wrapped gift that’s just waiting for spring to open it. Too bad spring has decided to take the holidays else where.
I am often emotionally torn by December snow. January, Februray and March snow, I firmly hate with all of my being. April snow is something I wish on my worst enimies. But December snow, well, it is December and it will be Christmas soon. One can forgive December snow. Snow is as much a part of Christmas as killing trees and showing our love through the communal sacrifice of waiting in line at the mall. Or is it? Is snow really that much a part of Christmas… really?
So, these days we have fake trees so we don’t have to repeatedly cut new ones down and we have the internet so mall shopping is best left to masochists. Do we all have snow?
The short answer is no. Even stranger is that not only do we not all have snow, but a pretty large percentage of people in the US will not see snow on Christmas. As a matter of fact, over 50% of people in the US have less than a 50% historical chance of having a White Christmas. I wouldn’t go betting in Vegas on those odds.
Even here in Cleveland, where snow is as expected as Santa himself, we only have just under a 50% chance of snow. If you live in the US, you can check your chances here.
*Phtt* White Christmas, my patuty. I bet even in Texas where the chances are darn close to -18% that there will be snow, the store displays are flocked and fluffy and everyone is sending holiday cards that would make Lake Tahoe feel inadequete. The chances of anyone in the US having a white Christmas are pretty scarce, so why do we all look out our windows like little kids for it to snow?
I don’t have an answer to that question. All I know is that in my garden, it is begining to look like Christmas, in that Hollywood, idealistic sort of way.