For the Sake of Intercultural Relations

[Wilson L. Deaton]

For the sake of intercultural relations let's work hard at breaking the emotional affiliation between Christmas and snow! Let's do it for Brad, Roland, and others....

Just this morning I was singing to my wife, "I'm dreaming of a green Christmas," and she said that means I don't have Christmas spirit...

I'm saying this totally altruistically out of my love for other cultures, etc. It has nothing to do with the fact that I HATE SNOW!!!!!!

Wilson (currently with green grass in Wisconsin--our 17 inch blizzard has all melted!!!!)

[Joel Merrill]

How about, "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire". Nah, it's just not the same. How about, "I'm Dreaming of Snow Down Under." Ah, that's better.

Joel

[Roland Hearn]

How about, "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire". Nah, it's just not the same. How about, "I'm Dreaming of Snow Down Under." Ah, that's better.

Joel

That would be nice but probably going to have to wait until the next ice age to happen. Yesterday it was 122 F on the playing field in Perth. It was a more moderate 95 here.
Christmas is a strange thing in the southern hemisphere. We have all the same imagery as in the northern hemisphere but without a single connection that works. The closest thing we have to making Christmas a bit more culturally appropriate is the legend that when Santa gets to Australia he trades his reindeer for large white Kangaroos.
Even in winter snow is a totally foreign thing. Before moving to the US I had only seen snow three times and one of those was on a trip to the US.
Still there is no sense in which the songs about white Christmas and roasting things on an open fire are any less part of the imagery of Christmas here.
So MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone from the land of the Christmas BBQ outside rather than Christmas diner inside, cicada's singing Christmas carols, and getting beach sand out of the car rather than snow off the drive. It is tough but someone had to be sent to colonize the antipodes.

[Barbara Moulton]

That would be nice but probably going to have to wait until the next ice age to happen. Yesterday it was 122 F on the playing field in Perth. It was a more moderate 95 here.
Christmas is a strange thing in the southern hemisphere. We have all the same imagery as in the northern hemisphere but without a single connection that works. The closest thing we have to making Christmas a bit more culturally appropriate is the legend that when Santa gets to Australia he trades his reindeer for large white Kangaroos.
Even in winter snow is a totally foreign thing. Before moving to the US I had only seen snow three times and one of those was on a trip to the US.
Still there is no sense in which the songs about white Christmas and roasting things on an open fire are any less part of the imagery of Christmas here.
So MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone from the land of the Christmas BBQ outside rather than Christmas diner inside, cicada's singing Christmas carols, and getting beach sand out of the car rather than snow off the drive. It is tough but someone had to be sent to colonize the antipodes.

Judging by the view outside my window today, I am going to have to get used to a "snowless" Christmas this year.

I do think that if I lived in a southern climate where there was no expectation of snow, I would handle it better then living in Canada and not getting snow. It just seems wrong :-)

I think, throughout my life, I can remember about 5 or 6 Christmas Days where there was no snow. They just weren't the same.

[Gord Evans]

How about, "Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire". Nah, it's just not the same. How about, "I'm Dreaming of Snow Down Under." Ah, that's better.

Joel

How 'bout, "Sleigh-bells, ring ... somewhere else!"

Katie and I spent some time today revelling in the nice green lawn extending from the back of our house, all the way back to the 17th fairway ... how good and pleasant and ... green ... it looked.

Katie is a winter-person ... I am not. If I found that I had to drive on nice clean, dry roads all this winter, and didn't have to shovel any white stuff from our driveway and walkways to accomplish it ... what a wonderful winter wonderland THAT would be!

That would probably mean that I wouldn't have to pre-warm-up the cars just to drive into the village for a bag of chips, etc.

I could learn to appreciate those conditions.

The sun was shining brightly, here, for awhile, today. The temperature rose to about 7 degrees C., or about 45 degrees F. I could learn to appreciate these winter temperatures, too ... or even slightly warmer ... for a month or even two. Then it can get back to sun and fun as far as I'm concerned.

Hey, Pete! How's the IHS membership roster this year?

[Judy Hamilton]

Hi Roland

I snow skied at Threadbow..this was Australia..
at least i thought i was in Australia and thought
i was skiing on snow

Judy

[Roland Hearn]

Hi Roland

I snow skied at Threadbow..this was Australia..
at least i thought i was in Australia and thought
i was skiing on snow

Judy

Well yes, Threadbow is about 800 miles south of where we live and in one of only two areas that because of altitude get annual snow on mainland Australia. That too would have been June-September I would have imagined.
In fact Threadbow is the one of the only places I had ever seen snow before myself. The only other places I have seen snow in Australia was on a trip back from Sydney where they had a very rare snow event in the highlands and once in the mountains near Melbourne. Actual air temperature in Brisbane, where I live, has never gotten down to freezing that I can remember, we do get frosts every once in awhile.