Snow for Christmas

Where did the idea of snow for Christmas come from? I grew up in Pennsylvania and we rarely had snow for Christmas. If we rarely had snow, I would imagine that most of the U.S. and western Europe also did not have snow. So where did this white Christmas thing come from? Is it just the influence of the song or is it older than that?

Boy, I have no idea, Kelli, but living here in Northern Michigan, Christmas just wouldn't be the same without snow!But I guess folks living in places where there isn't snow couldn't imagine Christmas WITH it! There is something magical and beautiful about snow for Christmas. Looks like we'll have a "White Christmas" here this year again!!

Maybe from American Colonial times? I don't know but I grew up in upstate NY and we had mostly White Christmases. While I love the warmer weather here in the sunny south, Christmas is not the same somehow...oh well.

Now New Years at Busch Gardens Tampa thats a different THING!

Its probably having to do with the north pole,and reindeer.Santas sleigh slides better on snow...LOL

i think karen got it-the north pole and such. try to pull a sled without snow on the ground-and especially packed with all those presents! ;)
We are going to have a white christmas here in mid-michigan!
They are saying 3-5 by christmas eve-YAHOOOOOO!
Its more MAGICAL with snow!

I think it came from the movie "Holiday Inn" with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. thats where the song(sing with me now) "Im dreaming....of a white Christmas......" . This song I know I grew up with. I dont ever remember my mom saying "I hope we get a white Christmas this year and she grew up in the mountains of West by God.

Did the white Christmas thing come from the Santa thing or was the Santa thing influenced by the white Christmas thing? Santa, as we know him, I think is a Victorian creation and thus is not all that old as far as Christmas traditions go.

I dont care where it came from-christmas eve it started snowing and was beautiful big flakes floating down. Christmas day we were in a winter storm warning-it came down down down-5-6inches of the prettiest glisting snow.
It was a merry chritmas!

BEAUTIFUL-its melting as the temps are in the 40s but they say more is on the way-good i want my plants covered with a blanket this year.

crestedchick I think you've got it...

Dashing in the sun,
through oaks and Spanish Moss
Sleigh riding's no fun,
when there's no snow to cross!

Our local paper says James Pierpont wrote One Horse
Open Sleigh (Jingle Bells) in Savanah, Georgia where he
might have been wistfully thinking of Medford, Mass.

I have lived in the northeast and I have seen enough snow to last me a lifetime (though it wasn't Christmas snow). I think I'll stick with the southern CA version of a winter wonderland. :-)