There is the South and then there is the Deep South. I live in North Carolina and we have often had beautiful snowfalls during our winters. Back in the 50s or early 60s we had the memorable winter of the "Wednesday" snow - several inches of snow for several Wednesdays in a row. The biggest snow in my memory was 2000 or 2001 when we had 14 inches. I made lots of snowmen growing up, we went sledding down the sand traps at the nearby country club golf course, and we made snow cream and yep, we still sing Frosty the Snowman and cut out snowmen cookies.

However, we are more experienced with ice storms.....sigh....

Those Deep South states of Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia might have different experiences with winter weather.

In the Dallas area, we get an occasional snowflake from time to time, and even get enough for children of all ages to build snowmen. Of course, it usually takes all the snow they had to make one of any size, so there's the snowman (or woman) sitting out in the yard full of grass.

I, personally, don't remember ever making a cookie or desert decorated like a snowman, but then, I haven't decorated cookies in any way in a long time. I tend to bake cookies that don't have to be decorated, cause I don't like icing.

Sally

In Alabama we never know if we are going to have any snow or not. We always see some flakes even if there is no accumulation. Children here have daydreams of a large snowfall and getting to make snow men and snow angels, so yes we decorate with snowmen cookies and fake snowmen are sometimes seen in yards, etc. Sometimes we'll get some snow and the kids make snowmen when you didn't dream there was enough snow there to make one. Before global warming, back in the 1960's I have seen it snow several feet before.

I can't answer for the southern part of our state or Florida of course.

I grew up in CA & didn't see snow until I was in fourth grade. We still sang "Frosty" & Mom made decorated snowman cookies. When I did experience snow (in Ely, Nevada) I had no idea it was so COLD! I instantly hated the stuff...snowmen or not! Now, I'm in SE CT right on the water. The water moderates our weather & we only get snow every few years. The past 3 years combined we've not had enough to cover the grass...thank goodness. But, about 5 years ago we were caught on the wrong side of a Nor'easter & got about a 3' dump. It was awful.

Thanks for the reminder...it's time to start looking for where I put the holiday music???

/tricia

In Central Texas (south of Dallas), we sang the songs and decorated with fake snow every year. We kids fantasized about snow every year. But we only saw snow in tiny amounts on rare occasions.

~Amanda

I grew up in Tucson, AZ where it snows very rarely but there is snow to be seen in the Catalina Mountains to the north. Snowflakes and snowmen are winter icons everywhere.

I'm a native of NW Florida - the most snow I've ever seen is an accumulation of about 4 inches that only lasted one day. We scraped the entire front yard clean to make a snowman about 2 feet high! That was on my niece's 6th birthday and she'll be 25 this Dec. 23rd.

We don't really get alot of snow in the particular location I live too..sure about 8 or 10 years ago we had a freak 3 ft..but that is not at all common...most of the time it's a light dusting - a few inches in FEBRUARY..LOL Now just 2 hours South at the States Capitol..they can get several feet through out the winter at different times.
But Frosty, the song, snowmen and frosted "icy" cookies are hits..
However we can look East or West and see snow on the Olympics and Cascades all year long...

I'm in Florida and the snowman is my favorite xmas decoration. Yes we sing Frosty the Snowman and we decorate our snowman cookies.

Sometimes businesses bring in snow for the kids to play in too!

I grew up in south Georgia, a stone's throw from Florida. I remember when I was a teenager that many of the kids at my school had never seen snow. In person, that is. They saw it on TV, of course.

Yes, we decorated with snowmen decorations, sprayed fake snow on the windows, sang "Frosty the Snowman", etc.

To tell the truth, as a kid I could wrap my head around the concept of snowmen a lot easier than I could understand those thick wool sweaters, heavy mittens and snow boots. A jacket got us through our winters.

Here in Louisiana, it snows once in a blue moon. Once every 10 years or so it will actually stick for a few hours!

We do sing Frosty etc and I've got some fake snow that I put around the nativity even though I don't think it snowed in Bethlehem either!

I draw the line at Christmas cards: I refuse to send a card with a snowy scene!!

Grace

Here in Berkeley it has been known to snow a few flakes at the the top of the hills. It's melted by the time you could get a kid up and dressed to go see it! Kids here to get taken to the Sierras for sledding and skiing, a drive of at least 4 hours. Most of them remember the 1st time they see snow.

But we decorate snowmen and snowflake cookies and cut out snowflakes to decorate our windows. I don't really miss snow, I grew up in Iowa and usually see some at Xmas when I visit the grandkids in MN. But I sure misss fireflies. CA kids, and I would bet all Westerners, all long to see fireflies and can't really imagine anything so special.

We do snowman stuff in OZ, where there is NO snow anywhere at Christmas, and only some in very isolated places any other time. It's wierd.

Thank you for all your responses. Just something that I have been curious about. Deanna

I grew up where Amanda did, and I didn't see snow until I was 11. It was warmer than usual when I was a child, and we also were having a very long drought. We did sing "Frosty the Snowman" and decorate snowman cookies, however. When we finally did have snow, it was only one or two inches, and my sister and I scraped the entire front yard clean to make a two foot high snowman, which was anything but white because of all the leaves that were in it.

My grandmother had a landscape painting in her den that was a scene of a river flowing through a snowy landscape. It was painted around 1927, I think, and was rather dark, with a dark sky and dark rocks at the river. The river was also dark, but there were lots of patches of white snow. As a child, I though the patches of snow were ghosts and had no idea that it was a landscape painting, and it always scared me to see it. I think I was 12 before I figured out what it really was. She had another dark painting from the same period of a vase with tulips in it, and I thought it was a bear wearing a hat - the vase was the bear's head and the tulip blossoms were the hat. That one scared me also.

Lars

I grew up in both IL and Tucson, AZ, and now I live in the San Diego area. We saw snow ONCE in Tucson when I lived there, and my mom was afraid to drive in it - not because she didn't know how (she DID), but she was afraid the rest of the Arizona drivers wouldn't know how!!! Here in SoCal we rarely see a snowflake; only if you go up into the mountains around Julian or up to Big Bear do you have snow. However, last Valentines Day, the town where I teach got DUMPED on by a load of snow.

That said - I teach Music. We sing "Suzy Snowflake", "Frosty the Snowman", and a lot of other songs that mention snow. Kids do artwork that includes snow. Teachers teach science units in weather where they talk about the phenomenon of snow. Students bring in snowmen shaped cookies and desserts for parties.

And to end my speech....SNOW is a 4-letter word. :-)

DonnaR/CA

I grew up on the Mississippi Coast. My parents had pictures of me at about 2 years old standing in a few inches of snow. I never saw it again (not even any flurries) until I was in my twenties and had moved away from home. When we got married, DH and I came to Colorado in June on our honeymoon and that was the most snow I had ever seen in my life. We did all of the fake snow stuff in Mississippi, too, including flocking our Christmas tree every year so it would look like it was covered in snow.

If it doesn't start snowing soon this year in Colorado we may have to use some fake snow this year. We haven't had any snow here yet, and we've hardly even had any cool weather. We're still having beautiful, warm sunny days. It's not getting us in the holiday spirit.