White Christmas

Of course, a white Christmas in London is defined as a single snowflake falling on the roof of the London Weather Centre in the 24 hours of 25 December.  At least, that's how the bookies define it. The capital has only seen snow on 13% of Christmas days since 1950, but that doesn't stop thousands of people from putting a 'flutter' on it.

Two weeks ago -- before the earliest snow fell in England for 29 years -- the odds of a white Christmas were 6/1, meaning a £100 bet would pay £700.  Today that bet would only return £450.  Today's forecast is for another artic blast, and so the odds will probably drop even further.

You can also bet on the number one song for Christmas.  That is usually the X Factor winner (the equivalent of American Idol), although in the last few years people have conspired against them, buying Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' and Rage Against the Machine.  Unfortunately, this year the conspirators have selected a song of silence -- seriously, a four minute track of musicians in the studio not playing.  While I think that is very English, I also think it doesn't have a snowball's chance of winning.

And if you're a little more adventurous, you can bet that the lowest recorded temperature in England will be beaten, the Thames will freeze over, or that Big Ben will fail to chime due to being frozen solid.  The odds of the latter is 100/1 but, worringly, the odds that the temperature will drop below -26.1C (-15F) are just 16/1.