Snow ho ho – will it be a white Christmas? (Picture: Getty)

If, like Bing Crosby, you’ve been dreaming of a white Christmas, you might have found those dreams go unfulfilled for years.

The UK isn’t known to have super snowy Christmases – not like the ones you see in Christmas classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and Home Alone. But with snow falling across the UK in the last few days, people are getting their hopes up.

However, as surprising as it might seem, the UK has technically had plenty of white Christmases. The definition that the Met Office uses to define a white Christmas is for one snowflake to be observed falling in the 24 hours of December 25 somewhere in the UK.

Traditionally snowflakes had to fall around the Met Office building in London. However, the number of locations has increased and can now include sites such as Buckingham Palace, Belfast (Aldergrove Airport), Aberdeen (Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen FC), Edinburgh (Castle), Coronation Street in Manchester and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

So, with that in mind, when was the last time we had a white Christmas?

When was the last white Christmas in the UK?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, with such a wide definition of what a white Christmas is, the last one in the UK was 2021.

Six percent of weather stations recorded snow falling in 2021, but only one percent reported any snow sticking to the ground.

Before that 2020 was also a white Christmas, with six percent of weather stations recording snow falling and four percent reporting snow lying on the ground.

In terms of widespread snowfall, our last snowiest Christmas was in 2010.

Not only was there snow on the ground at 83 percent of stations (the highest amount ever recorded) but snow or sleet also fell at 19 percent of all stations.

Which Christmas had the deepest snow?

The deepest lying snow on Christmas day in the UK was recorded back in 1981 when Kindrogan, Perthshire recorded 47cm.

Across the four countries of the UK, the deepest snowfalls at Christmas were:

England – 43cm at Buxton, Derbyshire (1981) and Malham Tarn, Yorkshire (2009)Northern Ireland – 17cm at Hillsborough, Down (2010)Scotland – 47cm at Kindrogan, Perthshire (1981)Wales – 45cm at Cae Poeth, Gwynedd (2010)

And, if you like your trivia, the Met Office have got other facts about Christmas Day weather records.

The UK technically sees more white Christmases than we might realise (Picture: Getty)

For example, the coldest ever Christmas Day? Back in 1878, temperatures hit a shocking -18.3 degrees Celsius at Gainford, Durham.

And the flip of that – the warmest every Christmas Day was in 1920, when Killerton in Devon saw temperatures hit a balmy 15.6 degrees Celsius.

Will it be a white Christmas this year?

Anyone hoping for a white Christmas this year might be in luck.

Alex Apati of Ladbrokes said: ‘White Christmas punters look set to get their wish this year, if the latest odds are anything to go by.’

Ladbrokes have currently put the odds of snow to fall anywhere in the UK on December 25 at 11/10.

MORE : When was the last white Christmas in London?

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When did we last have a wintery wonderland on Christmas Day?