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Christmas is here, where is the snow?

It is one month until Christmas and we are lacking a key ingredient to make the season festive. Where is the snow? I love snow. I am truly missing it right now. To me it seems a little difficult to get into the holiday mode without the white stuff floating around.

It is one month until Christmas and we are lacking a key ingredient to make the season festive. Where is the snow? I love snow. I am truly missing it right now. To me it seems a little difficult to get into the holiday mode without the white stuff floating around.

I know that some of you are grumbling at me because I would dare want snow but I am accustomed to the sparkling stuff. So I decided to do a little research about winter weather.

In a book called Blame Iit on the Weather: Strange Weather Facts by David Phillips, Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm, I found some winter facts that I thought that I would pass on to you. Imagine if you lived in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas in 1989 and you had your first white Christmas on record. El Paso, Texas received 16.8 inches of snow in 24 hours on December 13, 1987. By the time it stopped snowing, the city was under 22.4 inches of the white stuff.

But in Canada we expect snow. I found some interesting weather extremes for this great country of ours. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Canada was at Snag, Yukon on February 3, 1947. The temperature fell to -63.0 degrees Celsius or -81.4 degrees Fahrenheit. That would require a few extra layers to stay warm. A snowfall season runs from July 1 to June 30, believe it or not. The greatest snowfall in one season occurred at Mount Copeland in British Columbia during the snowfall season of 1971-1972. 2446.5 cm. or 964 inches of snow fell during that 365 day period.

We could end up like the places that I mentioned but we haven’t. I just want snow, enough snow to get rid of the grays and browns and make it sparkling in the sunlight. But if you don’t need snow to get into the Christmas spirit, the Stettler Public Library has a few programs to help you get into the holiday spirit.

We are bringing back our annual Christmas craft extravaganza for the third year: Craftapalooza. It is fun for crafters for all ages. We will be making rolled candles, decorated light switch plates, holiday cards and envelopes, painted gift bags, paper chains, gift tags and much more. It will be taking place on Saturday, Dec. 5 from 1 p.m to 3 p.m. Everybody is welcome.

The Giving Tree has now made its appearance at the Stettler Public Library. This tree allows for a convenient drop-off point for unwrapped gifts for the Stettler Christmas Hamper Society. Gifts for all ages are gratefully accepted. However, gifts for ages 10 to 18 have been the most difficult to collect in the past, so please keep that in mind.

The Stettler Public Library’s holiday hours are set. The library will be closing at 3 p.m on Thursday, Dec. 24 and will reopen on Monday, Dec. 28 for our regular hours. On Thursday, Dec. 31, 2009 the library will also be closing at 3:00 p.m and will reopen for regular hours on Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010.