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Christmas to be declared with onset of snow

Christmas to become a 'moveable feast' to ensure white Christmases
  (+7)
(+7)
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In the UK, a white Christmas is declared if a snowflake falls on the roof of the Met Office, while in the US there has to be a snow depth of at least 1" on Christmas morning. This leaves us with very few white Christmases, even though snow invariable falls in winter.

If we reverse this process and declare Christmas immediately on the onset of snow, we could celebrate bountiful white Christmases almost every year, with sledging, snowmen et al on the day (max number of Christmases: 1 per 12 months, unless rolled over from previous year).

However, there are other advantages to making Christmas a moveable holiday; Unproductive 'snow days' and commuting disruption would be reduced, since everyone would have the day off anyway, while old- fashioned snowless Christmases would be just a normal working day. The element of surprise would make the yule season more exciting for many, while the problem of Christmas 'getting earlier every year' and shopping chaos would be eliminated, with present-buying vigilantly spread across the year. Fans of Christmas can also enjoy 'follow the weather' and enjoy festivities in many different countries throughout the year, while the explanation of how Father Christmas gets round to all the houses in the world becomes more credible.

TheBamforth, Aug 18 2017

Move Christmas into Feburary Move_20Christmas_20into_20Feburary
The one thing it seems everyone agrees on is that Christmas is in the wrong place. [Loris, Aug 18 2017]

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       Bizarre, yet strangely compelling ...   

       [+]
8th of 7, Aug 18 2017
  

       I like the unpredictability of this. Christmas gifts would just have to be wrapped around Thanksgiving and waiting.
RayfordSteele, Aug 18 2017
  

       What [8th] said.   

       Also I note that half of all [TheBamforth]'s ideas are Christmas- related; obsessive specialism [+].
pertinax, Aug 18 2017
  

       "Always winter but never Xmas" [+].
nineteenthly, Aug 19 2017
  

       // I'm pretty sure things weren't so fragile a few decades ago. //   

       They weren't. They really weren't. And there's a very good reason for that.   

       Consider electricity supplies. 60 years ago, small, local outages were commonplace. Users just muttered a bit, waited for the power to come back, and - if it was dark - lit the candles they kept ready in a cupboard. It was no big deal. Then some bloke drove to the substation and poked a circuit breaker with a long pole, and the lights came back on.   

       Slowly, the system was automated. Substations could be monitored and controlled from central facilities. Supply and load management improved immeasurably. There were fewer and fewer outages. People bought fewer candles.   

       Today, the system is highly automated, and in many countries, blackouts are rare. There's still the odd lightning strike, or a damaged cable, or transformer fire, of course.   

       There's a catch.   

       When things go wrong progressively, on a large scale, the systems re-route and cross-link and load-shed and hang on and on and on and on ... and then the whole network crashes completely, and has to be painstakingly reconstituted under manual control.   

       So, little blackouts are very rare; when they happen now, they're widespread and long.
8th of 7, Aug 19 2017
  
      
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