I don’t mean me, of course, lots of snow in a big city makes for a miserable few days. But, generally, Christmas is supposed to be white - all the songs say that, the cards, everything has to have a bit of snow at least.
Apparently, we owe this idea of a white Christmas to a mister Charles Dickens, who happened to grow up in a time when winters in England were particularly cold. No, I did not just happen to know that. I just read about this here.
Dickens was born in 1812 and in 1814 the winter was so cold the Thames froze over. Frozen solid, I mean, to the point they were able to parade an elephant on the ice! Somewhere near Blackfriars Bridge. (Actually, the whole reason I write this is because it happens to mention places I know and love and hopefully next year will be good enough so we can afford another trip to London!)
Back to Dickens, it seems that during his childhood Christmases were always white, which is quite unusual for London. Naturally, when he wrote ’A Christmas Carol’, he had in mind the heavy snows of his childhood. This Christmas novella, published in 1843, is probably his most famous work, easily recognizable for people everywhere. I remember my daughter being in a Christmas play of it, my son knows the story from a Disney cartoon and undoubtedly we have the book somewhere!
The story had a great impact at a time when many British were nostalgic of the life before the industrial revolution, when times were quiet and Christmas was exactly like Dickens described it. And now it is our turn to be nostalgic of a Christmas many of us have never lived!
I can imagine myself spending Christmas somewhere in the country, with lots of snow and an idyllic scenery, but that’s just in my mind. The only time I remember spending the winter holidays in a beautiful mountain resort it was cold, my boots got wet and I could hardly walk in the snow…
So, no thanks, I’m good with a nice dry Christmas… but it’s nice to imagine…
Thanks for reading
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