Could be just a misinterpretation in the translation to English...sometimes there is not a literal translation...remembering too that it was firstly Swedish translated into Icelandic, then English.

@Marionville Maybe, but references to Father Christmas as well? I believe that the snow in Scotland does not really happen until then. I was in Scotland for a few weeks in January '95 driving about and living out the back of my Chevy pickup.

@rogerbenham The seasons have changed dramatically in the British Isles over the past couple of decades...snowfall tends to be much scarcer and what does come generally arrives later, towards the end of winter in February and sometimes even later. We rarely get any snow before or at Xmas, except on the highest mountains in Scotland, and quite often the skiing season in the Cairngorms is non existent. When it does snow, unless it comes early it never lies for very long because it’s swiftly followed by a thaw and lots of rain which washes it away and causes flooding.

@Marionville I had had Christmas with friends in Brough in Westmorland but then retreated South to my birth country in the Chiltern hills. but I had a serious problem and that was living in such damp conditions hovering around +1 and realised that hairy fungus was sprouting on my stuff. I ended up putting everything into three levels of plastic bags. I was sorely missing Canadian winters and so drove up via a university friend's near Aberdeen to Aviemore. I carried on up to Noss Head, across to the NW corner then down the West Coast. Somewhere along the line I overnighted at Loch Glascarnoch. I awoke to a weather report telling me that the coldest place in Britain was Loch Glascarnoch at -17. I jumped out of my pickup bed and danced naked on the empty parking lot. We Canadians get pretty tough to cold, after all I once milked goats outside at -49.