Monday, December 27, 2010

The Fallacy of a White Christmas

'Tis the season.  Americans everywhere dream of a white Christmas.  Snow on the ground as they wake to stockings filled with yummy treats, thoughtful gifts, and gag presents full of inside jokes.  And after all the gifts have been opened and the kids have been dressed, we can all go outside an frolick in the winter wonderland that is a white Christmas.

Until they realize that snow often comes with wind gusts of 40 mph, freezing temperatures, and is often icy, wet and utterably miserable to be in after it has fallen. So why do folks wish for a white Christmas?  Is it a case of the imagination completely blocking out the reality?  Has Hollywood and the media shaped our consciousness so much that logic and the reality of snow no longer mesh?

Let me paint you a picture, a picture of my childhood Christmas memories growing up in the Tidewater area where snow occurs on a rare basis (although they are under nearly a foot right now as I understand it).  I remember waking up for the fourth time before my parents would finally roll out of bed.  I'd run downstairs and see my new bike and yes more often than not there was a new bike because I didn't need more than a year to tear up the bike from last Christmas.  Awesome, got my bike even if it's not a Mongoose, I can work with it.  Let's tear through these other gifts.  Cool, another successful haul.  Time for french toast, one of my favorites when cooked by my mommy.

Now is the time.  55 degrees outside, sunshine.  I'm riding my new bike!  In fact, I'm hopping on my new bike and riding it down to my main man's house and seeing what kind of loot he got for the holiday.  And then he's coming to my house to check out my loot.  And then we are going down the street to check on somebody else's loot!

And all this is possible because there was no white christmas.......

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