SOOO CAL

Let it Snow

MOST OF US LIVING IN BEAUTIFUL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EITHER GREW UP WITHOUT SNOW OR MOVED HERE TO GET AWAY FROM IT.

By Scott Harris

Regardless, right around Christmas every year, we all seem to want just a bit of snow. In fact, the best-selling song of all time is Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” written in December of 1940. The Bing Crosby version has sold more than 100 million copies, which, by the way, is probably roughly equivalent to the number of times one hears that song during the ever-expanding holiday season — but that’s for next year’s holiday column.

It has long been rumored that Berlin wrote his iconic song while spending his 1940 holiday season in Southern California’s La Quinta, a town whose average December temperatures are in the mid 70s. He had to have been dreaming of snow, because the only white he would have actually seen was puffy white clouds, or maybe the perfect white sand of our beaches.

Our lack of holiday snow makes winter the one time of year when those who have moved to Southern California from a four-season climate tear up, just a little. Shoveling driveways, putting chains on cars and bundling up with five layers of clothing are conveniently forgotten while roaring fireplaces, gently falling snow and hot chocolate are the memories, real or imagined, that they dream about. Those of us who grew up in a snow-free environment have only the stories we’ve heard and Disney specials to build our white Christmas dreams on, but build them we do.

Now, it’s not that there isn’t any snow in Southern California. Big Bear and Wrightwood have terrific ski resorts. The San Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountain ranges are often covered with a dusting of snow, which we look at longingly from our homes, offices and quite often our cars as we fight traffic on the 405 or the 101.

But now, with so many of us either letting our lawns die or replacing the beautiful rolling green grass so long associated with Southern California with cactus and rocks, we are once again reminded that we live in a desert, a virtually snow-free desert. Yet, that almost primal desire for holiday snow still lies inside us, and we Southern Californians do what we can.

There are a few year-round indoor ice-rinks throughout Southern California, and they typically decorate for the holidays. Shopping malls throughout Southern California also build temporary ice rinks, indoors or outside, and we flock to them like moths to the light. In Long Beach, the Queen Mary hosts its Queen Mary Christmas where visitors can ice skate and also enjoy fun-filled activities in the Winter Wharf.

And, every year, we read about a couple of families who miss the snow so much that they have it blown into their front yards and invite all their friends and neighbors over to enjoy a couple of days of snowball fights and 10-foot toboggan runs.

But, for those of us who love the idea of an actual Southern California white Christmas, I’m thinking 2021 could be our year. We came close on January 22, 1921, when snow fell on Hollywood, and again as recently as Jan. 10, 1949, when a third of an inch of snow fell on the LA civic center and even our beach cities had a little.

As Mr. Berlin so beautifully and simply put it, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.” v

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