Must-see videos of the week – Jan. 4

It's the first week of the new year and unlike a year ago at this time, the vast majority of Canadians have already had to reach for their winter boots and shovels. So here are some of our favourite videos about snow from this week, plus some other funny clips.

1. How Canadians remove snow

This winter is shaping up to be a lot different from the last. Already most of the country is covered in snow. Montreal broke a record for most snow to fall in one day with 47 centimetres. Pushing it to the side just won't work so they blow it into dump trucks to get it off the streets. Maybe people around the world hadn't seen such an operation before because this video quickly went viral. Montrealers have also learned some creative ways to dig out their vehicles and houses.

[ Last week's must-see videos: Letters to Santa review desperate need ]

2. Snow swimming

You can call this guy the winter Michael Phelps. A guy in Croatia shows us what may be the next winter Olympic sport - snow swimming. We're not exactly sure what event he just swam, but we're guessing it's the 20-metre butterfly. If it does become an Olympic event, Canada would rack up the medals.

3. Dramatic rescue on ice

Tobogganing on a frozen lake in the mountains of Southern California turned into a scary experience when numerous people fell into the ice. At first, one guy on his tube went too fast over the ice and slid into the water. Then someone ventured out onto the thin part of the ice to rescue him and fell in. This created a domino effect as one would-be rescuer after another didn't learn from previous mistakes, cracking the ice and taking the plunge. After a few minutes they finally learned what most Canadians know - that ice gets thinner closer to where it meets the water — and they threw a rope from land. Nine minutes after the first man went in the water everyone was pulled out. It's okay to laugh, all are doing fine.

[ More Daily Buzz: Girl teach cow to jump over a fence ]

4. Riding the world's shortest escalator

A Reddit user living in Japan filmed himself taking a trip to a More's department store in Kawasaki to take a very short trip down the mechanical stairs. User "Etegamiguy" walked onto the escalator and a few seconds later stepped off, because it's vertical drop is only 83 cm and would be the equivalent of three steps. "It's a thing of beauty and magnificence," he says in an incredibly enthusiastic tone in the video. Yahoo! contacted the Guinness World Records team and they confirmed it does indeed hold the record. Many have taken to Reddit asking what you may be right now — how lazy is this able-bodied man? Couldn't he have just taken the stairs?

5. Baby scared by vacuum

This baby went from being incredibly happy to showing the most frightening face ever. It's as if aliens just landed on Earth. And all because the mother comes by to vacuum the floor. This isn't the only baby, vacuum encounter this week. Parents put their little one on a Roomba and let it go for a spin. While this was cute, it had some saying the parents need an infant safety refresher course.

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