“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Everywhere you go
Now there’s a tree in the Grand Hotel
One in the park as well
The sturdy kind that doesn’t mind the snow …”
“It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,”
Music & Lyrics by Meredith Wilson, 1951

The arrival of Christmas draws near. The celebration of a birth – Jesus’ – which, according to scholars and non-scholars alike, has had the greatest impact on mankind both historically and spiritually. Especially at Christmastime the evidence abounds; it’s “everywhere you go.”

The above quotation is from one of the most recognizable holiday songs ever written. When Meredith Wilson wrote it back in 1951, it was originally called “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas.” Whichever title you prefer, it may be more appropriate for the Christmas season nowadays than 60 years ago as it is looking like Christmas, earlier and earlier and earlier every year. Our street is competing with another to have the best yard displays. If this trend continues, we’ll be hanging lights in August! “Oh, what fun it is …”

What does Christmas look like? For real or in our imagination? If you want the hard (but not always cold) facts, it depends on your geographical location. Otherwise, look at a storefront window, a holiday greeting card, literature and the visual arts; listen to music. Few are without snow. The weather (at last!) is the key element to the imagined “look of Christmas.” There is an old algebraic equation: C+W=S, i.e. Christmas + Weather = Snow.

Snowflakes falling, ice skating, snowmen and Christmas came together during the Victorian Age. At the beginning of this era, 1837, Britain was in a mini ice-age that lasted from 1550 to 1850. The River Thames turned to solid ice. Another reason the Victorians put snow and Christmas together was the book “A Christmas Carol” written in 1843 by Charles Dickens. As a child, Dickens’ London at Christmastime was blanketed in heavy snow. Other traditions from this time were Christmas cards and trees. Both suggest cold and snowy weather.

Winter officially arrives today, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017 at 8:28 a.m. PST. I predict no H2O – neither flake nor drop – will fall across the foothills on this day, although freezing or close to freezing temperatures are expected. Along with Christmas Day comes the winds. The sun over the Crescenta Valley will indeed be “brightly shining.”

***Merry Christmas!***

Sue Kilpatrick is a
Crescenta Valley resident and
Official Skywarn Spotter for the
National Weather Service. Reach her at suelkilpatrick@gmail.com.

  Sue Kilpatrick