Bing Crosby dreamed of them, bookies dread them. For the majority of folk, a White Christmas is a wonderful thing. A complete blanket covering of snow between midnight and midday on 25 December. Lovely.
However, according to the Met Office, the definition used most widely, notably by those placing and taking bets, is for a single snowflake to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25 December at a specified location. Not very Christmassy, but a bet’s a bet I guess.
Traditionally the location was the Met Office building in London. However, due to an increase in betting on where will see a White Christmas, the number of locations have increased and can now include Buckingham Palace, Coronation Street in Manchester and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
According to weather boffins, the last 5 official White Christmases were:
2000 2001 2004 2009 2010
To find the last official UK white Christmas (A proper one, not a solitary flake) we have to travel back in time to 2010.
25th Dec 2010: Blackpool were still in the premiership, Xfactor’s Matt Cardle (who?) grabbed the Christmas no1 and the creator of the Wombles sadly died. More importantly though, for the sake of this article, average house prices in the UK at this time stood at £162,971.
According to the same data source (Nationwide), current house prices in the UK are £196,807, meaning the average house has gained a healthy £33,836 in value since the last white Christmas. With all the money your home has made in the last five years you could actually buy a live Womble or Blackpool FC or 33,836 Matt Cardle (Anyone?…anyone?..nope.) CDs.
Let’s take a look back at average UK house prices for the last 5 White Christmas years.
(Real house prices are adjusted for the effects of inflation. This gives a more meaningful guide to how house prices have increased compared to typical prices in the economy.)
2000
Period House Price “Real” House Price
2000 Q4 £81,628 £123,261
2001
Period House Price “Real” House Price
2001 Q4 £92,533 £138,281
2004
Period House Price “Real” House Price
2004 Q4 £152,464 £209,297
2009
Period House Price “Real” House Price
2009 Q4 £162,116 £194,125
2010
Period House Price “Real” House Price
2010 Q4 £162,971 £186,466
So there you have it. While they might not be as frequent as our nostalgia riddled heads would have us believe, they do happen. Each one bringing the gift of a little more equity in our home.
Seriously tho, who the hell is Matt Cardle?
