Sign in nature earlier this year shows if it’ll be a white Christmas

Folklore tales have lingered around  Christmas for centuries as people try to use the nature around us as signs predicting the weather over the festive period – and it can often be right.

People wait for nature to show us clear signs of what December 25 will bring, from snow to sun, wind and frost all whispering to tell us what we have in store. Although with these myths and sayings, it can come as a surprise just how far in advance predictions can be made – with signs at Christmas telling us if it’ll be a white Easter. 

As well as being an important day of the year for many as they gather around to celebrate, more often than not, Christmas Day acts as the unofficial fortune teller of the calendar. It’s thought that the folklore surrounding the festive period’s weather suggests that weather on Christmas Day will then give us the opposite later on at Easter.

While it could merely be a winter-spring comparison, with the idea of winter bringing dormancy and spring bringing newness, flourishing and growth, it can also symbolise those stark differences of life and death throughout Christianity. 

One of these popular phrases includes: ‘If at Christmas ice hangs on the willow, clover may be cut at Easter.’ Meanwhile, another states: ‘Christmas in snow, Easter in mud!’ or even ‘Green Christmas, white Easter’.

Although there are others that share the same sentiment and have been used as sayings for centuries. The phrase goes: “At Christmas meadows green, at Easter covered with frost. So many hours of sun on Christmas Day, so many frosts in the month of May.”

But the predictions within folklore don’t quite stop there; as much as they believe the opposing seasons are connected, they believe that there is a link between agriculture and the harvest when it comes to Christmas. Some of these phrases include ‘If there is much wind on Christmas Day, trees will bear much fruit’ and ‘If Christmas Day be bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.’

And ithat’s not all with one old saying even suggests if Christmas Eve is clear of snow, then there will be an ‘abundance’ of ‘wine and corn’ during the harvest time. Similarly, a piece of folklore says: “If the sun shines through an apple tree on Christmas, there will be an abundant crop of apples in the coming year.”

As much as Christmas Day is an easy date to remember in your weather-predicting calendars, there are plenty of folkloric phrases that focus solely on frost and snow at any time of the year. When it comes to luck, future weather or just simple signs in nature, these old beliefs are rooted in all kinds of weather changes.

Again, that theme of opposition is coming into play, predicting that if the sun is a bad sign, a hard freeze at Christmas is good and suggestive of a mild winter. T

his is shown in sayings like ‘Three white frosts and next a storm’ and even ‘Heavy frosts are generally followed by fine, clear weather.’

It’s believed the date of the first snowfall foretells the number of snowstorms to expect the winter ahead. Therefore, if the first snow we see all year falls on the 12th of the month, you should expect to see 12 more storms before the end of the season.