The Sierra-bound skiers and Christmas music fans will be singing "Let It Snow," but that ain't really happening, at least for a couple of weeks. Nor will it be a typically drizzly December as the month shapes up to be a more typical La Niña-pattern year than last year (see also this explanation from last winter, also a La Niña year, which turned out to be pretty wet in the end, with a record 800 inches of snow getting dumped on Tahoe). But then again the experts say there is no typical La Niña for California. It all depends on the position of the jet stream in relation to us, or whatever, the point being it's looking a lot drier than last year so far, which we kind of like. Cold and dry. A series of windy, wintry days when you want to listen to Simon & Garfunkel and write a longhand letter to your high school girlfriend, but you go through far fewer umbrellas and you can wear more fashionable jackets.

As for Christmas, you might have to get on a plane to find the snow. Or you can do it up San Francisco style, barbecue some oysters, stand out on the deck with a couple of scarves and some Belgian beer and think about a time when you had more time for things like letter-writing and making mixtapes, when you could stay up past eleven without drugs, and New Year's Eve still seemed like a night when magic happened, and fates were sealed.