A white Christmas - when will we finally get one like in the old days again? Year after year, many people dream of it finally snowing right on Christmas Eve, and in doing so they dreamily recall times gone by. While Bing Crosby sings "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" on the radio, we wait impatiently for the first snow, which is supposed to settle like a blanket over the fields and meadows, while at home we cozily sip mulled wine or hot chocolate and nibble on gingerbread - mostly in vain.
Off to the winter wonderland - into the snowy mountains!
How about a ski vacation for Christmas? Drinking mulled wine and eating Nuremberg gingerbread also works in a cozy mountain hut in ski areas. Snow? There's plenty of it there! A trip is worthwhile, for example, to the Saxon Ore Mountains (Erzgebirge) - also fondly called Germany's Christmas land. Here there's not only a greater chance of fresh snow but also centuries-old traditions and customs that visitors can see in the form of handicrafts, for example at the Christmas markets or in baroque palaces and castles where Christmas is celebrated exuberantly.
In the Alps, too, the expectation of snow is comparatively high. Snowfall on Christmas Eve and the two Christmas days is still a stroke of luck, but at least a thin blanket of snow is quite possible. Anyone who doesn't want to leave the snow to chance but wants to play it safe has to head to the Zugspitze in the eastern Alps: Germany's highest peak also reports melting snow masses due to ever-warmer temperatures, but the snow cover is still there. As an alternative, the Davos winter sports area in Switzerland is also a popular destination for a Christmas vacation.
What are the chances of a white Christmas in Germany?
The sad truth unfortunately doesn't look the way you may remember it: a white Christmas is more a stroke of luck than a tradition. The days around Christmas have always been comparatively mild in Germany - years ago, too. A look at historical weather records proves that, for example. In short: the chances of snow for the holiday are rather poor this year as well. Only a Christmas miracle can help there. Anyone who wants to try their luck should best celebrate Christmas in Munich: the probability of snow there is the highest of all major German cities, says the German Weather Service. But where, then, is there actually a guaranteed white Christmas like in a picture book?
A white Christmas abroad - the perfect travel destinations
Trips to the Alps, to Austria, or to Switzerland are all well and good, but are thin blankets of snow in the ski areas, partly created with artificial snow, enough for you? You probably won't find the deepest snow, the kind you and your children can bring snowmen to life with, here either - then the travel radius has to be expanded considerably: travel north. No, not straight to the North Pole, but to Denmark or even Norway! In the Scandinavian countries the weather isn't as dreary and mild as in Germany. In Eastern Europe, too, it's decidedly more wintry during the Christmas season. That's why trips to Prague, for example, are popular; the golden city looks undeniably fairy-tale-like when it snows.
The most beautiful and snowiest destinations, however, are even farther away and thus correspondingly costly: the ski regions of Mount Baker in Washington in the United States and Alta in Utah, the Alyeska Resort in Valdez, Alaska, or probably the snowiest ski area of all: Gassan in the Japanese Alps, which benefits, among other things, from the cold air from Siberia and the moisture of the Japanese Sea. A winter vacation in Canada also promises endless snow - at Christmas, too.
