The year Roy and I retired to the Texas coast (2004), our Christmas present was an everyday miracle – a Christmas Eve snowfall. The story that follows celebrates that event.
Robust, white snowflakes drifted gently to the ground, encasing Brazoria County in a cottony icing, delectable as a Christmas confection. The white Christmas celebrated by song and poem of holiday revelers had magically transformed the Texas coast. Children and adults gathered at their frost-tinged windows Christmas Eve to watch the wonder of … snow. It was a Christmas present from Mother Nature none of us expected, but having lived that magic moment, we will never forget.
Christmas Eve 2024 marks the 20-year anniversary of the Christmas Eve snow phenomenon. While most of us who were witnesses to the wondrous event thought the snowstorm was magic, meteorologists explained the event in scientific terms. They said that an arctic air mass was already well-established across South Texas on Christmas Eve and temperatures stayed mostly in the lower to middle 30s for the day of the 24th. Above surface temperatures also indicated that it would be cold enough for freezing precipitation. Then, from northern Mexico, a very strong upper-level disturbance advanced to South Texas during the daylight and evening hours of December 24. This strong disturbance coupled with the “persistent overrunning conditions were primarily responsible for this rare snowstorm.”
The snowstorm blanketed all of South Texas in varying amounts. But the luckiest community gifted by the Christmas Eve/Day snowstorm was the city of Brazoria in Brazoria County. It was in the center of the perfect snowstorm. A total of 13 inches of snow was recorded there – more than any other place on the coast.
Regardless of what the scientists reported, the people of South Texas instinctively knew what had happened – a Christmas miracle. In a semi-tropical place where people normally celebrate Christmas in shirt sleeves, they were bundling up and taking walks in pristine snow fields. They made snowmen, had snowball fights, and made snow angels. They delighted in the wonder of snow while checking on loved ones’ welfare. Christmas 2004, South Texas was transformed into a place that was truly “peace on earth” – even if it were just for one day. Those who witnessed the snow can remember where they were, what they did, and how it made them feel.
Roy and I couldn’t sleep due to being so excited watching the snow fall. Because we were awake, we witnessed something unforgettable. About midnight Christmas Eve, Roy called me to the patio door. A push boat was driving a barge up the San Bernard River and it was decked out with Christmas lights, including a Christmas tree. The search light on the boat shown straight ahead on the river becoming a spotlight for the dancing snowflakes. We watched in silence, knowing THIS was the best gift we would get this year.
HEB, a South Texas grocery store chain, was so enthralled with the snow event, that they held a contest where they asked people to send in their snow pictures and produced a coffee table book entitled Snow. HEB sold it through their stores, and were sold out as soon as the books hit the stores – and pictures kept coming in. So, they made a second book, entitled More Snow. They could not keep this book on their shelves either and sold over 70,000 copies from their order website. People want to remember the snow. My picture of a shrimp boat in the snow got a full page in this book.
Every Christmas memory is special, but 20 years ago on Christmas Eve, Roy and I were lucky enough to witness a Christmas miracle.
