Where Does it Snow in Europe at Christmas?

August 31, 2008 5:39 AM

Europe: Where does it Snow for Xmas?

I'm looking for a nice romantic getaway for Xmas in Europe where we can be assured of Snow around actual Christmas Day? (ie a week around 25th December).


Not looking for a Skiing Holiday.

Just looking for a little cottage in the snow, to sit around with a book cook some goose, etc. head into town for some bread and pastries..

We were looking at Switzerland - (Lucerne or similar) but apparently it often doesn't snow there until Jan.

posted by mary8nne to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (11 answers total)

My understanding is that most or much of the American Christmas Traditions come from Germany, so I would guess that is where you want to be.
posted by paisley henosis at 6:07 AM on August 31, 2008

Western Europe doesn't actually get all that much snow on any kind of regular basis. Just lots of rain. The Gulf Stream does a pretty good job of keeping most of that part of the continent pretty temperate. The Alps definitely receive annual snowfall, but again, you may not find freshly-fallen snow during Christmas as such. Actually, the Swiss have been pretty nervous about the effect that sustained years of little snow (most of the past 10) are having upon their skiing industry.

You may want to look a bit further north, i.e. Scandinavia. It snows early and stays late. If you're careful, you can probably find a vacation spot that 1) starts to get snow in early December, and 2) isn't above the Arctic Circle. I'd say Norway and Sweden are your best bets.
posted by valkyryn at 6:27 AM on August 31, 2008

Seconded Scandinavia - there are plenty of holidays offered to Lapland - where you may even see Santa, I'm sure you could find a cottage type affair.
posted by mattr at 6:34 AM on August 31, 2008

Northern Finland (Lapland). There are some figures on the probability of a white Christmas here.
posted by kaarne at 6:40 AM on August 31, 2008

Response by poster: Hmm well we went to Sweden last year (Stockholm) and were looing for somethign differnt. - I guess if you go somewhere in the Alps it would have to be snowy right?
posted by mary8nne at 7:57 AM on August 31, 2008

If you go to Scandinavia anyway, keep away from the coasts. Inland it's colder and snow is a more sure thing. The town Røros in Norway is cold and picturesque in winter.
posted by Harald74 at 8:37 AM on August 31, 2008

It isn't necessarily snowy in the Alps... seriously all the Alpine skiing countries have been freaking out with the small / late amounts of snow they've been getting. In fact, I remember reading last winter about how they were going to cover one of the glaciers with a tarp (okay, it was way more scientific and high tech than that) to keep it from melting.

I think the snow came in Sundsvall (Sweden) last year when I was visiting around Nov 4th... but not all of Scandinavia is the same so take a look at places that are different than Stockholm! Rural (vs. city), Norway or Finland (vs. Sweden).
posted by polexa at 9:19 AM on August 31, 2008

How about the Ice Hotel in Sweden?
posted by lukemeister at 1:14 PM on August 31, 2008

Krakow has a fabulous Christmas market and during the week is pretty well free of (hordes of) tourists.
posted by mdonley at 6:20 PM on August 31, 2008

Response by poster: but does it snow in Krakow?
posted by mary8nne at 11:13 PM on August 31, 2008

There is snowfall typically from December through to March which sees the city covered in snow around Christmas time.
posted by lukemeister at 9:25 AM on September 1, 2008