White Christmas

[sagehen]

>A. Murie ("sagehen") wrote anent the origin of the phrase
>"White Christmas":
>
>>>>
>  Its origins are probably Old World, given the old saying that a green
>Christmas means a full churchyard.  It must have arisen in contrast to
>the notion that a healthier season would need enough winter weather by
>Christmastime to arrest some diseases.
>  <<<
>
>Isn't that "must" rather strong for the evidence? Growing up in NYC, far
>from churchyards but not from winter snow, I never thought the expression
>needed any explanation at all. Christmas -- snow -- the ground is white --
>white Christmas. Absolutely transparently compositional.
>
>m a m
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I asumed we were talking about something more than just an expression that
could  as easily have been about shoes or rooftops. "White Christmas"  as a
hoped-for event, as in the Berlin song: a cultural trope.
AM

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