Dreaming of a Green Christmas - a New-Old Seasonal Symbology for Californians

Snow in the balmy California lowlands is a freak occurrence, an aberration, and almost as likely to happen in April as in December—it is always magic when it does happen though . . . [continue]

But for us, rain not snow is the name of the game in winter.  And by late December, even in the South and interior, the hills have repainted themselves as green and velvety as a billiard table.

So, unless you plan to move to the high country or back East, don’t waste your time dreaming of a white Christmas; start dreaming instead of a green one, and you will rarely be disappointed.

Those of you who are lucky enough to live at the foot of high mountains, of course, can have the best of both worlds.  Probably nowhere is the contrast so great and so dramatic as it is on the Southern California coastal plain, with a palmy seaside foreground set against a backdrop of high, snowy mountains.