A White Christmas

As we have already had a couple of snow storms here in Northern Maine, it is safe to say that “it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.” The air is cold, there's a permanent slush puddle on the welcome mat, and boots have transformed from being utilitarian fashion accessories to this season's must-have footwear. But all that winter wonder aside, what does a person do if he or she lives in an area of the world that only dreams of a white Christmas? How does a person truly get into the spirit of the occasion without a bit of snow on the ground? Well, that is the topic of today's blog. Below you will find a few helpful hints to make even the most tropical of holidays into a winter wonderland.

• To simulate the look of a snowy front yard, you could cover the entire lawn with a layer of cotton batting (the stuff used to make quilts puffy). Of course, that might kill your grass, but let's just deal with one problem at a time here.
  
  
• Buy a snow cone machine and have a snow cone fight. (Just remember to avoid lemon-flavored snow cones – that'll just teach your children it's alright to eat yellow snow.)
  
  
• Christmas just isn't Christmas without a snowman in the backyard. So if you don't have snow, you can always pile up three full trash bags and paint a face on it. Or if you don't have a backyard in which to build your snowman, a smaller, indoor snowman can be made. For example, you could build a snowman in the freezer using freezer frost. Or you could use chunky kitty litter to decorate your cat's litter box with a festive litter snowman!
  
  
• Kids love to play with flour sifters (or at least I did when I was one). So why not give them all large bags of confectioners' sugar and a flour sifter? They can then be sent upstairs to sift the sugar out their bedroom windows. Not only will this entertain the children, but for anyone looking out a first-floor window, it will appear that a light dusting of snow is falling from the heavens.
  
  
• And if all else fails, you can buy some of that spray-on frost (or a good can of white spray paint will do - assuming you don't mind it being permanent) and paint the world white to your heart's content (or at least until the fumes make you faint).

And now that you have a few key tips to making your tropical paradise into a frozen wasteland, get cracking – those palm trees aren't going to frost themselves.