A White Christmas in Australia?

The chances of us getting a white Christmas here in Australia, anywhere in Australia, can pretty much be summed up by the old phrase “a snowballs chance in hell”.

Australia, of course, isn’t hell, but it is hot at this time of year.

But the people down at Movie World…

movie-world… don’t agree, they have a White Christmas every year and Mrs Bobinoz and Elizabeth (plus some friends) went down to the Gold Coast on Sunday evening to catch the show.

When they got back, I ask Elizabeth what she liked about it.

“Well, I liked the tree…”

tree“I really enjoyed the skating on ice, that made it feel a bit like a White Christmas…”

ice skating“Outside on Main Street, they had lights that made it look like snow was falling…”

snow“They had a huge Santa…”

here comes the big fella big fella

big fellas face“And I saw some snow…”

here comes some snow

Here comes some snow

woosh

Woosh!

“But the very best part, the bit I loved the most, was the parade. Everybody was there, every loony tunes character you could think of showed up, including my favourite, Bugs Bunny!” Said Elizabeth.

“We even saw Frosty the Snowman and the real Santa with his seven reindeer…”

Frosty

Real Santa and reindeersWell thanks Elizabeth for your take on the show, and for all those fantastic pictures you took with mummy’s iPhone.

There you have it folks, we did have a White Christmas here in Australia.

Update: 18 December 2012

Within hours of posting this article, Micko, in the comments below, pointed out that Australia does on occasions have white Christmases.

I am, of course, aware that snow does fall in Australia quite often in some places, especially the high ground, and that we have ski resorts. But I was so confident that snow would not fall in the middle of summer here anywhere, that I didn’t bother to Google it.

I should have done.

Mick is absolutely right, within a few minutes I found evidence of snow falling on 20 December in 2010, so a near miss on that occasion, and then in 2006 a direct hit on Christmas Day.

A report in The Australian on December 26 of that year explained that Perth was sweltering in 34°C, it was a bit muggy in Queensland although still hot at 32°C, but Melburnians had their coldest ever Christmas Day with accompanying hail and biting winds.

And north-east of Melbourne, in Mount Buller, people were having snowball fights. It snowed elsewhere in Australia on Christmas Day that year, you can read more over at The Australian. I’m sure there are also many other instances of white Christmases in Australia too.

Sometimes “a snowballs chance in hell” comes off!

Thanks Mick for letting me know.

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{ 8 comments… add one }
  • Rhonda November 23, 2018, 12:02 pm |

    My father was just telling me about having a White Christmas in Leura back in about 1936! Really hope it will happen again so I don’t have to travel to see one!!?

    • BobinOz November 26, 2018, 8:30 pm |

      I had to google Leura to see where it was, and now I know, Blue Mountains. I would imagine snow in December has got to be pretty rare, so good luck waiting for that to happen. But you never know you luck and if it’s happened once, it could happen again. Merry Christmas 🙂 Can I say that in November?

  • Cath December 19, 2016, 2:09 am |

    In more recent 20 years, it is a regular enough occurrence for snow to fall in Hobart, Tasmania on Christmas Day or the week of Christmas, and this may make its way to Victorian and NSW Alps. Check info on years 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, and even this year 2016 snow has fallen this week http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4043544/Tasmania-ready-White-Christmas-snow-falls-state.html Last December 2015 a bit of snow.. http://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/december-dusting-of-snow-greets-hobart/news-story/f834dcfd573ea7b50d62478d316e8339

    • BobinOz December 19, 2016, 8:20 pm |

      Wow, yes, I looked at those articles and there was quite a lot of snow about. It’s either a very near miss for a White Christmas, but who knows, maybe it will happen again next week? If it does, I’m sure Mount Wellington will be very busy on Christmas Day.

      Thanks for the links Cath, White Christmases clearly happen here more often than we (or is it I) would think.

  • Sue Court December 19, 2012, 8:13 pm |

    If it snows on Christmas Day I’ll want a refund! If I wanted cold I would have stayed in the UK. Fortunately we’re forecast 38C and sunny for Christmas day here in Perth 🙂 .

    • BobinOz December 20, 2012, 12:22 am |

      I think you’ll be okay over there, no need for a refund 🙂

  • micko December 17, 2012, 9:37 pm |

    Hi Bob,

    As it turns out, we do have white xmas’s in Oz. Now, that doesn’t happen in Brisbane, where I am currently marinating in my own sweat. However, every so often it will snow down south, even on Christmas day! From memory (sweltering too much right now to google it) the last time was around 2008, when snow fell on Christmas Day in the Victorian Alps, and in the high country in Tasmania.

    Cheers,
    Mick

    • BobinOz December 18, 2012, 2:02 pm |

      “Well go to the bottom of my stairs” as we British say when we are shocked. You are absolutely right Mick, I did a little Googling myself and it wasn’t hard to find snow at Christmas in Australia.

      Thanks for the tipoff, I have added an update to the above post. Merry Christmas to you!

      Cheers

      Bob

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