Yay, it is a White Christmas this year!!!

White Christmas..... sounds so dreamy. Doesn't it?

This term was alien to me until I heard for the first time when I was in the States. It was the month of December and snowing quite a bit. Everyone started speculating it could be a white Christmas that year, while many wished silently it shouldn't be coz of an upcoming project go-live on the New Year eve.

So what exactly is this White Christmas? If we wake up to a blanket of snow or snow fall on the day of Christmas, it is considered White Christmas. Since ages, the very thought of Christmas brings the picture of Santa riding on his sleigh over snowy mountains carrying loads of gifts. Though I grew up in a city, which could never get a speckle of snow, Christmas always made me think of snow. Many songs and novels associating Christmas with snow, like the classic by Charles Dickens, Christmas carols, the famous White Christmas song by Irving Berlin, etc. made us believe it is true. I am sure this is how many around the globe, perceive about Christmas.

But Christmas isn't white as we dream across vast majority of the globe, except for Antarctica, few places in Canada, US, Europe etc. Also different countries have different definitions of White Christmas - few places consider it is White Christmas if it snows on Christmas eve or the day of Christmas, for few they should get new snow on 25th Dec, for some it is enough if the ground is covered with snow (new or day(s) before) or just few snow flakes and it varies country to country.

For Canada, the ground has to be covered with at least 2cm of snow on the day of 25th Dec (whether new or old) to call it as White Christmas. The province where I stay is expected to get good amount of snow fall every year in December and the probability to celebrate a White Christmas is roughly 50%. While we had snow on 25th Dec in the year 2020, it didn't snow last year.

A major winter storm had hit Canada just days before 25th Dec and many places (especially in western parts of Canada) have received lots of snow. At Ontario too its not been any different. Luckily, the place where we live didn't witness exceedingly large amounts of snow, but had snow blows due to heavy wind, causing damages to roads and houses, power outages, flight cancellations during this much awaited holiday season.

Many might have called off their plans to travel, meet family and friends or couldn't celebrate the day as planned due to the adverse weather. But isn't this the snowy Christmas we dreamt off when we were kids? Doesn't the true spirit of Christmas lie in spending our day remembering all the gifts life has given us, hoping the best for the days to come and spreading cheer amongst everyone near us?

I wish you and your family, a very merry and joyous Christmas - whether it is white or green!!!

Note: I will be back on the 8th of Jan, with an interesting book that I am currently reading. Until then, happy reading and a very happy holidays!! Make the best of the remaining few days in 2022.

Follow me on my Youtube channel to get notified about my latest articles!!

Comments

Review: Anex Monkey Smart Watch

Hello Readers, Welcome back. While browsing through a weekly flyer by Canadian Tire, my eyes got hold of a smart watch, primarily for its name - Monkey Smart Watch. It's original price was $89.99. On account of Father's Day, the price was slashed 70% and offered for just $24.99 (from June 9th to June 16th). As it was listed on Canadian Tire website, I thought the product should be genuine and googled to know more about the product. But there weren't sufficient reviews online. So I decided to try it myself and booked it online. This smart watch was launched in the last quarter of 2021 as Anex Monkey Smart Watch. Last year, it had been sold for just $19.99 as part of Black Friday deal. Even after 5 days of waiting, Canadian Tire didn't process my order. On the other hand, the stock was vanishing real quick and only 80 watches were available in our near by store. When checked with their customer service executive, I was told to cancel my online order or wait until they p...

Review: Farzi (Web Series)

Indian web series aren't new to us. Recently, multi-starrer web series, that too combination of performers from North-South film industries is on the raise. Farzi falls into the same category, with Makkal Selvan Vijay Sethupathi foraying into web series along with Bollywood's heartthrob Shahid Kapoor. Farzi (meaning Fake), is an Indian crime thriller web series, from the creators of Family Man series - Raj and DK. It is released in Amazon Prime on 10th Feb 2023, in multiple Indian languages (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada). Raj and DK have directed and cowritten this series with Sita Menon and Suman Kumar. Apart from Vijay Sethupathi and Shahid Kapoor, the star cast includes Bhuvan Arora, Kay Kay Menon, Raashii Khanna, Zakir Hussain, Amol Palekar, Regina Cassandra etc. Michael Vedanayagam (Vijay Sethupathi) is a fierce task force officer, on a mission to eradicate counterfeit currency mafia in India. He is on look for the Indian counterfeit network head Mansoor Dal...

Book: To All The Boys I've Loved Before

It's been a very long time since I read a romantic novel. I came across this book and looking at the title, felt it should be interesting. True to my intuition, "To all the boys I've loved before" written by Jenny Han , was an enjoyable read. Just to give a sneak peak into the novel, it is the story of a teenager named Lara Jean. She is the middle one amongst three sisters and has a habit of writing love letters to the boys she has a crush on. Instead of giving it to the boys, she secretly stores them in a hatbox in her room. One day her younger sister, posts all those letters to the boys. Amongst those letters, one was addressed to their elder sister's boyfriend. Rest of the story is how Lara handles the consequences and stops the impend...

Brantford Twin Valley Zoo, Ontario

We are left with just few more weeks of summer and couple more beautiful places to explore, before we bid good bye to the season this year. Twin Valley Zoo at Brantford (Ontario, Canada) is one such place which was on our bucket list for this summer. At Canada, we cannot spot any other animal in our neighbourhood beyond pet dogs, cats and the ever active squirrels that freely roam wherever their heart takes them. If we are lucky, we may also get a chance to find few horses in their stables when we pass through the country side. While I was in the US, I visited a pet zoo in our locality, which housed a cow, sheep, goat, hen, rooster, few chicken, duck and a goose, specifically to introduce them to kids; which was quite amusing. A person like me who has grown up seeing domestic animals and birds like cows, buffalos, sheep, goat, hens, ducks etc. in the neighbourhood (in India), I found this particularly odd. Of course, today, we don't get to see these beings in the city si...

2025 in Books: Stories That Stayed With Me

2025 - Another year has quietly gone by, and this time I read nine beautiful books. It was a slower reading year for me. An injured right arm meant I couldn’t even carry half a cup of water for a while. For someone who swears by reading a physical copy - who believes books must be held, felt, and turned page by page - shifting to any other format just didn’t feel right. So a reading slump followed. I’m still finding my way back into rhythm, back into the comfort of getting lost in the stories and lingering with characters long after the last page. Here is a quick recap of what I read last year. The School for Good Mothers: A powerful fictional exploration by Jessamine Chan on modern motherhood and the weight of the societal judgement. It made me sit with uncomfortable questions about what it means to be a “good” mother in a world that watches women closely and rarely forgives their mistakes. You can read the full review in this link . The Fury: I really enjoyed The...

Manu's Medley

Search This Blog