White Christmas: where did the term originate, how is it used and what defines one?

The weather getting colder, and the nights getting longer is a sign that Christmas is almost upon us, and with that comes hopes of a white Christmas. 

The Met Office defines a White Christmas to be when a minimum of one snowflake falls in the 24 hours that it is Christmas. But where did the term white Christmas originate from, and how often does it happen? Here's what you need to know. 

Where did the term White Christmas come from? 

The term white Christmas was popularised by Charles Dickens, who would often depict a snow-covered Christmas in his novels The Pickwick Papers (1836), A Christmas Carol (1843), as well as his short stories which were influenced by memories of his childhood which coincided with the coldest decade in England in over a century. 

The song, White Christmas, written by Irving Berlin and sung by Bing Crosby speaks of a traditional white Christmas which has since become a seasonal standard.

The term has become well-used across popular media, with several albums using the term to name their albums, such as White Christmas, (Peter Andre album, 2015), White Christmas (Pat Boone, 1959), White Christmas (Rosemary Clooney, 1996), as well as the Al Green album (1986) and Martina McBride (1998). 

White Christmas is also an Australian dessert made of dried fruit, glace cherries, desiccated coconut, icing sugar, milk powder and Rice Bubbles with hydrogenated coconut oil as the binding agent. White Christmas is also the 2014 Christmas special of Black Mirror and the 2015 episode of Modern Family. 

What defines a white Christmas? 

A white Christmas is usually associated with the Christmas period, and covers Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, however, the Met Office defines a white Christmas to be when a single snowflake falls in the 24 hours of Christmas day. A white Christmas is more common in the northern hemisphere, as December marks the beginning of the southern hemisphere summer making white Christmases rare there.