The record of these ‘white Christmases’ are very London centric, with snowy weather of course occurring on Christmas Day across other parts of the British Isles. In 1922, the lack of snow for Christmas made headline news in the Pall Mall Gazette, the words ‘No Snow’ adorning the front page, as ‘London’s hopes (and fears) for a ‘old-fashioned’ Christmas are fading away.’ Gaunt also reminisces about the ‘‘rose’ Christmas of 1913, when roses bloomed and primroses grew in the woods.’ Arthur Gaunt, writing for the Shields Daily Newsin 1955, recalls the Christmas of 1844, which was ‘so mild that picnics were held and London’s Rotton Row was the scene of a fashion parade of ladies dressed in summer finery.’ The temperature that year reached ‘over 60 degrees.’ Indeed, during the nineteenth century there were also unseasonably warm Christmases. The weather report from 1869 certainly bears this out, the Carlisle Patriot noting the ‘capriciousness of Christmas weather…where we have had in succession snow, rain, hail and gales of wind.’ So, a proper white Christmas only occurred on five days out of fifty. Dodgson | Illustrated London News | 24 December 1853 In the fifty years there have been eleven brilliantly fine Christmas days, ten fair, and twenty-six days when the weather has been ‘dull.’ Snow fell only five Christmas days in fifty years, though the ground may have been white on other occasions through previous falls. In January 1890 The Cornish Telegraphoutlined the ‘ last fifty years‘ of Christmas weather: But why was this? Fifty Years of Christmas Weather So we see some examples of a white Christmas already in our Archive, but already in 1906 such an event was seen as ‘old-fashioned,’ and somewhat historic. ‘The City of Dreadful White – London’s Snow-Clad and Deserted Streets as They Looked on Boxing Day’ | The Bystander | 2 January 1907 The Spherealso tells of the unhappiness of the London rate payers, with the Christmas snow set to cost the borough councils ‘some £5,000.’ Meanwhile the snowy Christmas weather robbed the King, Edward VII, of his favourite pastime, as the traditional Boxing Day shoot at Sandringham was cancelled. ‘Tobogganing on Parliament Hill’ by J Barnard Davis | The Sphere | 5 January 1907 The snow came as the night fell, bringing ‘the greatest of gifts (to some people) on Boxing Day.’ The Sphere, like the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, calls this an ‘ old-fashioned Christmas,’ with the ‘young people’ taking to Hampstead Heath on their toboggans, or indeed using ‘everything in the shape of a box’ to take advantage of the snowy conditions. Register now and explore The Archive Popular FancyĪs the snow fell in Sheffield in late 1906, the Sheffield Daily Telegraphwrites how it is only ‘popular fancy invests Christmas with ideas of snow.’ Even with the snowflakes falling, the newspaper is sounding a note of caution, reporting how ‘this is only the second Christmas on which there has been an appreciable amount of snow for a quarter of a century.’ The newspaper looks back to 1899 when ‘snow fell heavily on the evening of Christmas Day.’ In this special blog we will attempt to sort the fact from the fiction, the myth from the reality, as we explore the truth behind the popular image of a white Christmas, using newspapers taken from our Archive. Illustrated London News | 9 November 1956īut, in Britain, are we right to connect snowfall with Christmas? Is there a historical precedence for our dreams of a white Christmas? Long before the Irving Berlin-written, Bing Crosby-sung, hit of ‘White Christmas’ was released in 1942, this snowy Christmas weather was referred to as ‘Good Old Fashioned Christmas Weather.’ Snow lay on the ground to the depth of about six inches, and, except in the streets, so remained until last night, when there was a further fall. On the evening of Christmas Day the snow began to fall, and yesterday morning the city was covered in a beautiful mantle of the purest white. On Christmas Day 1906 the city of Sheffield in the north of England saw the ‘heaviest Christmas snow for 25 years,’ as the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reports:
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