Let it snow! Let it snow!
True story: I never touched snow that stayed on the ground until I was 21. It was at Lake Tahoe, and technically it was on a beach, but I still had no idea what to do with this strange stuff. (Pictured on right.)
Growing up in Houston, where I’m visiting now, it gets plenty cold and often rains, but snow? Never. I think once when I was in elementary school some flakes fell from the sky and the city basically shut down in amazement. When I was younger (okay, maybe 16) whenever the sky was white with clouds my father would declare “Those are snow clouds.” Everyone would laugh, but I didn’t get the joke until a good 20 years of my life had passed without meaningful amounts of snow.
There was one exception. Christmas of ’04 I had just moved to San Francisco and started a job at CNET two months before. My rent was 6x what it had been in Houston and between that and some other travel I was completely broke by the time December came around. of course I couldn’t tell my parents, so I had some sort of logical reason why my first Christmas away from home I wasn’t going to be able to visit, and I didn’t. It wasn’t a total wash, I ended up writing bbPress and doing a lot of the work for what would become WordPress 1.5. But that one year I didn’t go back a nationwide snow storm brought Houston its very first White Christmas. My friends Sarah and Jess delighted in rubbing it in:
While these look like innocent pictures, they really stung. I vowed never to miss a Christmas in Houston again, knowing full well that there will probably never be another White Christmas in my lifetime
But now regardless of the weather conditions wherever you’re spending this holiday season, you can at least have snow on your blog! Go to your Dashboard, then Presentation, then click on Extras and you’ll see this:
Check the box, hit save, and you and your visitors will see small white flakes of snow coming down on your blog. (This works best if you don’t have a theme with a white background.) Much like snow in Houston, the flakes won’t stay long on the ground, I think because our servers tend to be a little hot. This feature will be available for a limited time only, on January 2nd it will disappear until next year, but just imagine it as our little present to you, an opportunity to spread a little cheer.
Merry Christmas! Here’s a latin jazz version of Let it Snow to listen to while activating the feature:
Update: As promised, the snow has melted away until next year.
- December 25, 2007
- New Features
That is so funny! Thanks Matt!
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nice choice of scripts, i love that it actually accumulates on the bottom of the screen.
amusing, too to have it expire january 2nd. snow in chicago generally lasts until march or so, but i’m usually throughly tired of it by then 😉
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Lovely! But why only until Jan 2nd? That means my Christmas will be snowless (Orthodox Christmas is Jan 7th).
Oh well, thanks of course and Merry Christmas!
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thank you! as a SETX native …i do recall a decent ‘snow’ way back in the mid 70’s. had a picture of our dog at the time playing in the snow. black dog on white snow. hadn’t thought of that pic in decades. heh…thanks for the feature, looks really good on a dark blog.
(and a horrendous ice storm in ’97…ugh!)
and season’s greetings to you and yours.
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That rocks Matt! My little tree needed some snow! Thanks for the great service this year, can’t wait to see what the engineers at Akismet bring next.
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brrrr…,
cool (^_-)
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oh my gosh!!! Real snow!!!!!!!!!! And the best thing is that it’s in the 60’s outside!!!
What my brother failed to mention in his little anecdote, was that my father would point to the sky in July, and say “look, baby! Those are snow clouds!!!” and I would get all excited. about the time that I figured out the game, a new gullible kid came along (Matt), and the joke started all over again.
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Really nice ! Even if I’ve a white backgoound..! 😉 Thanks Matt !
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Thanks! Nice add 🙂 Let it snow…
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Hey! What a neat feature. Thanks for adding it.
Happy Holidays WordPress guys & gals. Keep up the great work.
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It’s not easy for me. I couldn’t manage 😦
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Love the snow. We get some snow here in Granbury Tx, but not much!
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What a cool feature! Thanks!
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excellent! I’m going to turn that on right now.
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Cool Matt. Thanks!
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Nice little extra. Proves that you pay attention to the little things. Merry Christmas Matt.
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i love the snow feature. what an awesome idea.
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Merry Christmas Matt
from Montreal
Jeremy
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Hey if you move to the Northeast you would get snow more often! Yeah SNOW! Merry Christmas!
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Wow! Merry Christmas to you & your family Matt! I had no idea that you shared my hometown of Houston! I now live just south of city limits. I thought up till yesterday that we were gonna have one of our famous (weather wise- 80’s) Beach Christmas Days!
Hey, are you an Aggie? I kept thinking I was just imagining little A&M “figures of speech” , and there’s your blogtitle too; my son is an Aggie!
I am very new to blogging and its all foreign lingo to me so I won’t even try to add the snow, but its cool, neat or whatev the current fav wurd is! thanks for keeping us up to date on all the great (and not so great) features and fixes. Happy New Year!
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incidentally, i first saw and touched snow at lake tahoe too! it was early spring so it was totally unexpected. it’ll b a climate disaster if it snows in my tropical country so thanx for the snow tis x’mas!
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cool!!! unfortunately my blog have a white background. but it’s okay. thanx matt 😉
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It works and is so pretty! Thank you, Matt, and Merry Christmas!
You are all so good to us and I look forward to a wonderful 2008 with you.
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Thanks for the fun feature!
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Niceeeeeeeee!!
I love it~ XD XD
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*waves from practically across the street* Thanks, Matt! I remember when we had that snow in ’04…we all had a huge snowball fight (well, huge as we can get here *LOL*). Thanks for the awesome blog [script] present. 😀 I hope you have a very Merry Christmas!
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I was originally like WTW? Is my screen broken?
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You guys wouldn’t happen to have a plugin of that falling snow for those of us using standalone versions of WordPress, would you?
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Sweet. I love the snow.
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Thank you, Matt and Merry Christmas!
🙂
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You don’t really need a plugin, the code is super-easy:
http://www.schillmania.com/projects/snowstorm/
There are about half a dozen others mentioned on my blog.
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Thanks and Merry Christmas!!!
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I remember the ice in 97…and the flood of 94.
Yeah, I’m another SETX native too…just recently moved slightly to the left (but still in tx).
I like the snowflakes…very nice. But yeah, a darker background would be better. Otherwise, it just seems that I am having vision problems.
Thanks!
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Im using a totally black theme and I just activated the snow thingy. I dont know if its because its so pretty or because I had ungodly ammounts of alcohol last night but I really wanna pick my laptop up and shake it a bit to see if it makes the snow move faster for a while, like a paperweight. *L* I live in the middle of Sweden and we didnt even get a white christmas this year, so this is heavily appreciated.
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We have plenty of snow up here in Ottawa Matt. What’s more a little more on the blog 😉 Have a safe holiday season.
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So.
Funny.
Love it, Matt!
I’m from Nebraska where it snows all the time and always drifts up to six feet. On the East Coast it’s been pretty “white-dry” this time of year over the years and we have no snow for the holidays this year.
Thanks for sharing the holiday cheer!
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Hi Matt, Houston greetings to you! Robin
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wow… great snow fall. I was just thinking about the snow in chicago this christmas. thx, this really made my day.
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Cool effect, saw it before I read it.
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wow.. thanks!! this is really great! Oh Matt, cant believe u missed it when it finally snowed! At least you managed to afterall 😉 I’m still yet to touch my very first snowflake [it doesn’t snow on this part of the globe 😦 ]
anyway, Merry Christmas & happy holidays everyone!
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Thank you for the nice holiday gift (and great story). Now I can have snow in the desert after all!
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HAH! I love it. But the snow experience IRL gets old real fast. Try living in Quebec for your entire life. Awesome add-on.
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Have a blessed christmas, Matt! Thanks for the snowing tip. 😉
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Aha, a way to have a white Christmas in SoCal WITHOUT having to drive up to the mountains! Thanks, WordPress. And Happy Holidays! 🙂
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Oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! Prettttttyy. lol just kidding. No, that snow feature is THE BOMB!!!! I wish we could have falling image script on our blogs all the time 😛 Merry xmas matt.
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Very Cool !! Thanks and Merry Christmas WordPress Team.
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This is too cool! Thanks, Matt and the WordPress elves!
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Yoo, Matt, nice extras there…
There’s no snow in Indonesia, never ever as we have tropical country here…
But at least, I can see those tiny little white thing on my blog![:mrgreen:](https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/mrgreen.svg)
Cool job!
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What a cool feature! Thanks.
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Merry Christmas everybody.
And great feature Matt, shows why WordPress really is the best. Too bad I have a totally white theme though.
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i am LOVIN the snow!! thanks so much–it is soooooo much fun falling on my black background and across my winter solstice posts–even across an image i got form nasa of the mooon!!! soo very cool and thank you again!!!
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juz luv it…
tho i’m not celebratin’ it!!!
realy tanx 😉
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Brilliant, thanks!
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gggrrreeatt!!!
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Thanks Matt ! Very nice.
Greetings.
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Ho ho ho ! Thanks a lot for this stuff Matt
Very funny – Merry Xmas for you & your family 🙂
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Oh no, a childhood with no sledging or snowball fights?
Happy Christmas
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Thank You for the snow! 🙂
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Nooooo! Dont take it away! Its too cool! (Gettit? Snow, cool, cold?… Aw, never mind.)
It there any way to keep the snow on your blog?
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Thanks for the stand alone one Matt :D, and for the regular one, let it snow!
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Great feature n’ great song! Coolie!
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I remember that year. I got to make snowmen and had a massive snowball fight on Christmas Eve. Thanks for the snow and hope you have a Merry Christmas!
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Thanx Matt 🙂
This a very nice Extra.
Greetings from germany
Mara
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Merry Christmas.. Thanks for the snow and the song here.. Very nice!
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I love the snow effect.
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Nice, thanks.
I agree, until Jan 8th would be great.
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swell, how funny, just turned it on, looks a bit like dandruff though, not crystals 😉 thanx and happy holidays!
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Love it! Last time it snowed in Sevilla was over 50 years ago (and they still talk about it).
Very nice Christmas present – muchisimas gracias!
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Yay, snow! Thanks!
Also, Happy Christmas!
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nice!!! At least my blog looks more in the mood for the festivities!! Thank you so much! Love it!!
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Nice Xmas gesture 😉
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Totally fun – thanks!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Matt.
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Nice addition.![:mrgreen:](https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/mrgreen.svg)
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Thank you Matt … Loved it! it looks fantastic …
Merry Christmas to you too
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Merry Christmas Mr WordPress….love and hugs to all
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This Christmas it ‘snow’ in Kuching, Borneo. At the Pavillon.
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Hey, could we extend that until January 7th? That’s the end of the Xmas season in Spain, right after the 3 wise men come… 🙂
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Dude, you crack me up. Love your memoir — reminds me of the Great Pumpkin story. Very well-written, humorous, even poignant. Here’s hoping your wait won’t be too long. Merry Christmas!
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Matt,
My dear mother, 80 years old and moving around with some difficulty, says that “snow” is the only 4-letter word she won’t say out loud.
I’ll pass, thanks! 😉
My all-white theme won’t appreciate it, but it’s a cute idea. Happy holidays!
–mudge
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*
Thank
you Matt.
Merry Christmas
to you and the team
and wishing everyone in
the WordPress community
a safe, happy and healthy 2008
IIIII
IIIII
IIIII
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That’s really cool, Matt!
Even in winter snow is restricted to some southernmost towns here in Brazil, but I think some snow flakes falling on my blog would be nice! ;o)
Merry Christmas!
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Snow? So thatz what it looks like when it comes down!
Tx
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happy Christmas. mat, thanks to you all services on the wordpress.com
regard
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