White Christmas

Idiom/Expression: White Christmas - a Christmas day when there is snow on the ground. 

There are a lot of people in the United States who associate the holiday season and Christmas with snow, even if they live in a place where it never snows.  There are nostalgic, old time pictures and images on Christmas decorations and cards with snowy Christmas scenes. These snowy images make people think of a simpler time in an ideal world where everything seems perfect. Many people hope for and talk about a white Christmas along with other holiday traditions such as hanging stockings by the fire and decorating a Christmas tree.  In some places, people gamble each year on if there will be snow or not on Christmas day. 

Context #1 – Two roommates are talking about what to do at Christmas time.

Jeff: I really miss New York at Christmas time. When I was a kid, we used to have a white Christmas every year!

Maggie: Wow! You are so lucky! I’ve lived in California my whole life and I’ve never actually experienced snow, except at Disneyland and that was fake snow.

Jeff: Really? That’s too bad. It’s so nice waking up on Christmas morning and looking outside to see everything covered in a blanket of snow! It’s like a picture you see on a Christmas card!

Maggie: Well, Big Bear is not so far away. Why don’t we go there on Christmas day so that I can see the snow for myself and you can get the white Christmas you are missing here in LA?

Jeff: You know, that is a great idea! I guess we will have a white Christmas after all!

One of the most famous Christmas songs in the United States is "White Christmas," written in January of 1940. Many well-known artists have recorded this song and it is still widely played on the radio during the holiday season in the U.S.

Context #2 – Following are the lyrics from the song “White Christmas.” Read along while you watch the video.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white

 Meaning: In context 1, the two roommates decide they want to go out of town to a place where it is snowy so that they can have a white Christmas. In the lyrics for the song “White Christmas,” the singer is nostalgic for the Christmases of the past filled with sleigh bells, children, and snow.  He wishes everyone a Christmas like the happy ones he remembers.