Want a white Christmas this year? Try heading north

Dust off that old Bing Crosby record, because according to Environment Canada, the only white Christmas we'll likely be enjoying this year is the one coming from our speakers.

"Right now if you were an odds maker I'd be betting a few loonies on the fact there will be a few more areas than last year that will be green rather than white this Christmas," the agency's senior climatologist, Dave Phillips, told CTV News.

A white Christmas tends to involve at least two centimetres of snow on the ground come December 25.

With the exception of our northern compatriots up in Yellowknife, Whitehorse, and Iqaluit, who never met a December that wasn't blanketed in the stuff, the rest of us can expect little more than a polite dusting on the front yard.

Although cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, and Winnipeg have each had varying amounts of snow up to now, the showing is paltry compared to previous years.

Along the Atlantic coast capitals there's nary a flake to be seen. Same goes for major towns like Toronto, Quebec City, and Vancouver.

In fact, the unseasonably has some Canadians asking "where's winter?" Of course, Canada will eventually be walloped by the white stuff this winter. We're just going to get a reprieve through the holiday season.

"For Canadians to see a guaranteed white Christmas at this stage they're going to have to go north," Phillips tells CTV.

But for those who can't imagine celebrating the holidays without the promise of a few itinerant flakes, Phillips provided a spark of hope.

"There could be some surprises, there are storms not even born yet that will give us snow before Christmas. But whether we get it is one thing, whether we can hold onto it is another," he said, adding that weather can attack us from any direction.

Still, if you have the budget and feel like seeing the world, you could try to book a holiday to New York City, Prague or Paris - they're just some of the international destinations that appear to be a lock for the storied white Christmas.