Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Bogobam Here. Whether you're listening to the radio in Caribou, Maine,
Speaker 1: or Phoenix, Arizona, during the month of December, chances are
Speaker 1: you'll hear Bing Crosby singing the lyrics I'm dreaming of
Speaker 1: a White Christmas. A white Christmas, of course, refers to
Speaker 1: snowy weather on Christmas Day. If you wake up Christmas
Speaker 1: morning and look out the window to see a blanket
Speaker 1: of bright white snow, then you've officially experienced your very
Speaker 1: own white Christmas. Hoping for one has become a tradition,
Speaker 1: just like putting up the Christmas tree and hanging stockings,
Speaker 1: and it isn't exclusive to the United States. It's such
Speaker 1: a big deal in London and Dublin, for instance, that
Speaker 1: people actually track odds and gamble every year on whether
Speaker 1: or not there will be any snowfall on December. Many
Speaker 1: people in the Northern Hemisphere anyway, associate Christmas in the
Speaker 1: holiday season with snow, even if we hardly ever get
Speaker 1: snow where we live. Nostalgic illustrations like Norman Rockwell's snowy
Speaker 1: Christmas scenes may evoked a yearning for simpler time, and
Speaker 1: Bing Crosby's rendition of White Christmas is certainly fraught with
Speaker 1: a sense of longing. The song White Christmas, written by
Speaker 1: Irving Berlin in January of nineteen forty, is an extremely
Speaker 1: influential pop song. It's even listed in the Guinness World
Speaker 1: Records for selling more than fifty million copies worldwide. Hundreds
Speaker 1: of artists have recorded the tune. Although Bing Crosby originally
Speaker 1: made White Christmas famous, starting with the version in the
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two film Holiday Inn, but everyone from Louis
Speaker 1: Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald to the Carpenters to Willie Nelson
Speaker 1: to the cast of Glee has lent their voices to it.
Speaker 1: Berlin's timing was perfect. The public started to catch on
Speaker 1: to White Christmas around the same time that the United
Speaker 1: States entered World War Two, and soldiers stationed overseas continued
Speaker 1: to request records of White Christmas during the winter months
Speaker 1: after the war. Berlin and Crosby secured the song and
Speaker 1: its ties to World War Two and the public's consciousness
Speaker 1: with the film White Christmas, which, along with die Hard,
Speaker 1: I just don't feel like it's Christmas without It's enough
Speaker 1: nostalgia to make even those of us who live in
Speaker 1: a region where it's highly unlikely to get snowfall wish
Speaker 1: for at least a dusting during the holidays. The National
Speaker 1: Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has an interactive map that explores
Speaker 1: the historical probability of getting a white Christmas throughout the
Speaker 1: United States, and nearly half the country has less than
Speaker 1: a chance. Berlin even poked fun at the likelihood of
Speaker 1: a place like southern California ever getting any snow. The
Speaker 1: original first verse of White Christmas refers to a sunny
Speaker 1: Christmas Day in Los Angeles, but it's often cut and
Speaker 1: the song's begun instead with the famous chorus, lending a
Speaker 1: deeper note of melancholy and perhaps a more relatable story
Speaker 1: for those of us who don't live in l A.
Speaker 1: But Hey, although we can look at lots of data
Speaker 1: and say that the chances of a certain area receiving
Speaker 1: snowfall during Christmas are low, nothing is impossible when it
Speaker 1: comes to the weather. Case In point, New Orleans hadn't
Speaker 1: had a white Christmas for fifty years, but in two
Speaker 1: thousand four, the city finally recorded snowfall on Christmas Day.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by John Fuller and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. The brain Stuff is a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more in this and
Speaker 1: lots of other festive topics, visit our home planet, how
Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. And for more podcasts for my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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