What are your chances of a white Christmas in the UK, USA or Canada - if you are betting on it?

 

When I look at Christmas cards and hear the song, I'm dreaming of a White Christmas, I imagine a snow covering on the ground and rooftops. The silence of Christmas day is caused when the traffic has stopped because shops are shut, people are at home, and the snow impedes walking and driving. c

But if you want to know which country will have snow, in order to make, or cancel, travel plans, or to make bets on a white Christmas, you might be interested in the following summary from Wikipedia, which I have divided by country for clarity. 

The criteria for a "white Christmas" varies. In most countries, it simply means that the ground is covered by snow at Christmas, but some countries have more strict definitions. 

In the United States, the official definition of a white Christmas is that there has to be a snow depth of at least 1 in or 2.5 cm at 7:00 a.m. local time on Christmas morning,^[3] 

Flag of Canada

CANADA

In Canada the official definition is that there has to be more than 2 cm (0.79 in) on the ground on Christmas Day.^[4] 

UK flag

UK

In the United Kingdom, although for many a white Christmas simply means a complete covering of snow on Christmas Day, the official definition by the British Met Office and British bookmakers is for snow to be observed falling, however little (even if it melts before it reaches the ground), in the 24 hours of 25 December.^[5][6] 

Consequently, according to the Met Office and British bookmakers, even 91 cm (3 ft) of snow on the ground at Christmas, because of a heavy snow fall a few days before, will not constitute a white Christmas. But a few snowflakes mixed with rain will, even if they never reach the ground. 

In the United Kingdom the most likely place to see snowfall on a Christmas Day is in North and North Eastern Scotland, in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire or the Highlands.^[7]

Flag of Australia.

AUSTRALIA

Although the term White Christmas usually refers to snow, if a significant hail accumulation occurs in an area on Christmas Day, as happened in parts of Melbourne on 25 December 2011, this can also be described as a white Christmas, due to the resulting white appearance of the landscape resembling snow cover.^[8]

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Christmas_(weather)

https://www.41051.com/xmaslyrics/whitexmas.html

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

Which American Hotel Is Owned By Singapore?

American flag

I was reading about La Quinta hotel and resorts in California, which is one of two prestige hotels where White Christmas could have been written by Irving Berlin. Assuming this was the hotel, by which swimming pool was he sitting by when he wrote White Christmas, that's hard to say, as the hotel now has dozens of pools. It is a vast estate of little villas where the rich and famous of Hollywood movie fame or heads of state hang out, in privacy.



Then I read that the hotel was owned by a Singapore Government investment company. I tracked back to that.

Wiki said:

Hollywood

A hangout for star celebrities since its inception, La Quinta Resort's greatest claim to fame is as the site which film director and frequent guest Frank Capra wrote the screenplay for Lost Horizon poolside in 1937.

Both La Quinta Resort & Club and PGA WEST were acquired by the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund, the real estate investment fund of Morgan Stanley, in 2007.^[2] In 2011, lenders including Paulson & Co., Winthrop Realty Trust and Capital Trust foreclosed on 8 of the former CNL hotels. in 2013, the owners reached a deal to sell the La Quinta and three other properties to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation.^[3] Hilton Hotels Corporation, based in McLean, Virginia, manages the hotel as a member of Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts.

Governments and local council invest the money they collect from tax payers. The governments have literally billions of dollars and would be remiss if they did not invest it wisely.

Well, well, well. Your hotel, or the nearby hotel, or the hotel you are reading about, could be owned or part owned by the government of another country you are living in or travelling to. Small world, as they say.

Whether you are in the tropics or a cold Christmassy country:
Merry Christmas!

Now I have many more hotels to add to my must see list, even if I can only admire them from a distance.

For more about White Christmas and another hotel, the Arizona Biltmore, see the previous blog post.

Useful Websites
https://genius.com/Bing-crosby-white-christmas-lyrics
visttheusa.co.uk
singaporeair.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Biltmore_Hotel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Quinta_Resort_%26_Club
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIC_Private_Limited

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. 
I have many more posts on the USA, destinations worldwide and seasonal subjects.
Please bookmark and share links with your friends and family and colleagues.

White Christmas song: where was it written in the USA? Maybe the Arizona Biltmore Hotel?

US Flag

The song written by Irving Berlin first performed on Christmas day 1941 became the world's best selling single. Nowadays the first verse is dropped. He wrote it in either the La Quinta hotel in La Quinta, California, USA, or another hotel where he often stayed, the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix, Arizona.

The Arizona Biltmore Hotel
One story goes that Irving Berlin wrote the lyrics by the Catalina pool which is also known as the Marilyn Monroe pool. We don't know what he was drinking, but the hotel's barman invented the Tequila Sunrise.


Catalina Pool, Arizona Biltmore Hotel, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Irving Berlin started his song with this verse:

The sun is shining, the grass is green,
The orange and palm trees sway.
There's never been such a day
in Beverly Hills, L.A.
But it's December the twenty-fourth,—
And I am longing to be up North

However, the second verse was the one which caught on worldwide. Not everybody is in Beverly Hills, LA. But many people can remember previous Christmases.  




The second verse is the one everybody knows
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

Then what?

Nostalgia

Just like the ones I used to know

Where the tree tops glisten and children listen
for sleigh bells in the snow

Irving Berlin was from a Jewish family who emigrated from Russia to the USA. You don't have to be a committed Christian, or indeed a Christian, to feel affected by this song. It's a classic.

Irving Berlin. Photo from Wikipedia.

He wrote many other equally famous hits, Alexander's Ragtime Band, God Bless America. he lived to the age of 101.

The Arizona Biltmore, 2400 East Missouri Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona, United States, 85016Tel: 602.955.6600.

See Useful Websites
Wikipedia White xmas song
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Christmas_(song)
visittheusa.co.uk
https://genius.com/Bing-crosby-white-christmas-lyrics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Biltmore_Hotel

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. 
I have many more posts on the USA, destinations worldwide and seasonal subjects. See my next post on La Quinta hotel and resort.
Please bookmark and share links with your friends and family and colleagues.

Christmas in Venezuela, according to Jesus

Venezuela is a Spanish speaking country and they have some of our English carols and hymns and Christmas songs but sung in Spanish. For example, jingle bells. Same tune, but Spanish words.

Christmas is celebrated with the usual symbols, in a country which is warm at Christmas time. If they are dreaming of a white Christmas they are probably planning to go to New York or somewhere further north. Such as Canada. Of course, many Americans and Canadians are dreaming of a warm Christmas somewhere such as Venezuela.

Christmas Day is celebrated with gifts to children, but the gifts are not delivered by Santa Claus but by the baby Jesus.

So I am informed by a Venezuelan friend called Jesus.

Not many people in London, England, are called Jesus.  Except those born in Venezuela.


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.