If we were to sing carols that started

In the balmy winter, all around was fine,
Christmas carols were sung outside,
Coats off, holding glass of chilled wine,
Not a touch of frost nor snow around, could be a-spied
In the balmy winter, so very mild and dry...

..we would probably all be up in arms very quickly and I doubt it would be a very popular number (not least for its poor scanning!).  The fact is we expect our carols to talk about bleak hard frosty winters with plenty of snow around.  It's certainly not the weather that would have likely been experienced in the 'Holy Land' around Christmas time, indeed it's not often the weather we generally experience here around the Christmas period. Most winters are green and only up in the north east of Scotland does the chance of a white Christmas start to increase significantly.

Look at some of the other verses traditionally sung at Christmas and you'll see what it mean. We have for instance:

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel..

..written in Finland as long ago as 1553 you can see why it might refer to expected cold weather around Xmas time.  Then of course we have Jingle Bells, a favourite of children everywhere.. this was originnally written for Thanksgiving Day in the USA in 1857.

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tails ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and sing
A sleighing song tonight..

Then there's 'Bleak and Chill the wintry wind'  by Alfred Burt, written in 1945:

Ah, bleak and chill the wintry wind,
but colder far be he
Who hath no warmth of love to share
with Christ the babe that Mary bare..

The perennial Christmas time favourite, though not a carol of course, has to be 'White Christmas', the music and lyrics for White Christmas were written by Irving Berlin in 1942.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten,
and children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow...

Now you can't sing that in a group around a sparklingly lit Xmas tree without feeling a touch of nostalgia can you? I suppose you can't really get away from the fact that many carols simply exhort us to expect snow at Christmas and equally I guess we wouldn't have it any other way really would we?

Have a festive seasonal period, whether -and however- you choose to celebrate it and here's to an 'interesting' 2008 weather wise, which is to be honest what we weather people really hope for each year, as we make our New Year Resolutions!