Christmas seems to attract more weather folklore than any other day in the calendar, but the many sayings tend to share a common theme: the weather on Christmas Day will be the opposite of what happens later.
In some cases, Christmas is set in opposition to Easter, perhaps representing the opposite poles of the Christian story. “At Christmas meadows green, at Easter covered with frost,” is one such prediction, matched with: “If at Christmas ice hangs on the willow, clover may be cut at Easter,” indicating a good growing season.
Another suggests that “so many hours of sun on Christmas Day, so many frosts in the month of May”, with the same pattern of pleasure now meaning pain later. There is also a warning that “If Christmas day be bright and clear, there’ll be two winters in the year.”
If sun is a bad sign, a hard freeze at Christmas is good, foretelling a mild winter. Supposedly if pond ice is thick enough to hold the weight of a person on Christmas Day, it will not be able to support a mouse after that.
A windy Christmas precedes a good fruit crop. However, a day makes all the difference, since a windy St Stephen’s Day, 26 December, supposedly signifies a poor grape harvest.
