When Erika Lundell moved south from Stockholm a decade ago, she was surprised to see how much of the Christmas decorations in her new home of Malmö – and indeed around the world – featured snow and ice.
“Suddenly, they came out in a different way,” said Lundell, an ethnographer and senior lecturer at Malmö University in Sweden. She said the emphasis was more pronounced than when she was living in the Swedish capital, where actual snow is more common. “There are a lot of Christmas decorations that have a snow element.”
Whether it’s white wool decorating shop windows, icicle lights hanging from a pine tree or even the baby Jesus incongruously bundled up in a Middle Eastern manger on a cold, snowy night, decorative snow is ubiquitous this time of year. In Sweden, Lundell said the idea of a “real” Nordic winter filled with thick blankets of snow is seen by many as part of the national identity.
Lundell, who studies snow and the cultural aspects of winter, has spoken to dozens of Swedes of all ages about their experience of winter weather – and how it is changing as winters get warmer in the Northern Hemisphere. Most live in southern Sweden, where snowfall has become rare in recent decades. And with just a few days left until Christmas in Malmö, it’s looking unlikely this year either.
“The older generations, they have much more detailed stories of living with the snow – snow forts, sleds, [skiing] Go to school,” Lundell said. But for young Swedes, he said, it is not part of their everyday life in the winter months – they are more accustomed to dirty, icy snow and slush.
The majority told Lundell that “they miss the snow,” that classic winter made popular by songs, stories, and fantasies over many centuries, especially during the Christmas season. “You can see it [in their] The description of snow is very poetic, very romantic,” he said, highlighting the connection between snow and “the spirit of Christmas.”
“There is a very strong belief in this part of the world that it has to snow to have a great Christmas.”
Christmas culture is omnipresent
The association between snow and Christmas has spread around the world with the help of colonialism and capitalism. Even in places like New Zealand, where the holiday falls in the summer and is often celebrated with barbecues on the beach, tourism and sustainability scholar C. Michael Hall said homes are decorated with fake Christmas trees, inflatable plastic snowmen and reindeer.
“I’ve been to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur at Christmas time. And they’ve got Santa in his suit […] They have huge pine trees with artificial snow on them. “The iconography is there, and it’s clearly going to be with us for a very long time,” Hall said, speaking to DW from Auckland.
Both Hall and Lundell hope that familiar Christmas symbols and traditions won’t disappear soon — even if we have to do more to preserve them. Pine trees, which have struggled to adapt to a warming climate, are still an important part of the Christmas scene. a recent survey A survey conducted by Ipsos in the US showed that about 83% of Americans were choosing a convenient artificial tree this year.
“The culture associated with Christmas and snow, I think, will remain very strong. But the distance between the object and its meaning will become more apparent,” Lundell said.
Europe, as the fastest-warming continent, has seen a decline in the average number of snowy days over the past 40 years, with the past five years being the two warmest winters on record. In North America, traditionally frozen areas such as the Great Lakes region on the US-Canadian border are also experiencing thaw. For example, the relatively mild winter of 2019/2020 saw very little ice on inland seas, which typically covered more than 40% of their surface area.
“Culturally, [that loss] It will be a huge shock,” Hall said. That absence will be especially felt in Rovaniemi, the self-proclaimed “official hometown of Santa Claus” in northern Finland. When people visit Rovaniemi, they’re expecting the full package: sleigh rides, St. Nick and, of course, fun in the snow.
Hall, currently Professor at Massey Business School, spent many years at the University of Oulu, south of Rovaniemi, where he looked at how climate change is affecting “the fairyland of Christmas”.
“In terms of the number of visitors, Christmas is the peak for Rovaniemi,” he said. “That’s how he’s established himself over the years, and that’s how he’s cemented himself in people’s imagination. And […] It’s very hard to walk away from that.”
Moving on from snow and Santa
But in a sign that this perception is changing, Hall said he noticed during his recent trip to Rovaniemi that some tourists were not so concerned about the lack of snow. Despite being surrounded by mud and slush, he said, “they were eager to make sure they had a picture with the deer.”
Iceland-based travel agency Nordic Visitor, which has been operating Christmas and winter holiday tours in Northern Europe since 2002, has not had to change its destinations for climate reasons. But it has modified some of its activities and “been more transparent with guests about what to expect.”
“Fifteen years ago, we relied heavily on traditional snowy imagery, which reflected travelers’ expectations at the time. Almost all of our tours included winter activities such as dog sledding, reindeer sledding, snowmobiling and glacier experiences,” a company spokesperson told DW.
Now, when faced with a shortage of snow, suppliers have adapted their Husky sleds to be transported on wheels. Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi is open year-round, with Santa welcoming visitors “whether rain, snow or shine.”
Other tour operators are also choosing to focus more on activities that are not dependent on the weather. “You’ve got some places that are already doing this specifically [with] The aurora borealis, the northern lights,” Hall said. “You’re already getting that kind of change.”
For Nordic visitors, it also means tourism “highlighting local cultural experiences that are not dependent on snow” and welcoming the New Year with bonfires and fireworks. “We are often told by our guests that it is about the whole experience – the culture, the lights, the landscape – not just checking the box on a white Christmas.”
,[With climate change] Wintertime will lose one of its components, snow, but not darkness,” Lundell said, adding that we can begin to place less emphasis on snow and cold, and more on another important symbol of the season: “the interplay between light and darkness.”
“Maybe in the future winter will be known more as the dark season rather than the cold season,” he said. The idea of snow and winter would then fade into our shared cultural memory, “like a fairy tale.”
Edited by: Sarah Stephan