I doesn’t look like Santa will need a shovel when he heads out on December 25.

Environment Canada is predicting a green holiday for the majority of Canadians this year.

(QMI AGENCY FILE)

————————————————————-

White Christmas? Keep dreaming, Canada.

Environment Canada is predicting a green holiday for the majority of Canadians this year.

“So many Canadians are going to experience a green or a brown Christmas,” senior meteorologist David Phillips said on Wednesday.

Winter has officially begun, but it sure doesn’t look like it across much of the country.

To experience that truly white Christmas, at least two centimetres of snow must be on the ground.

Most of western Canada will experience balmy patio weather rather than anything like a winter wonderland.

In Calgary, Sunday is expected to be a very non-Christmas 8 C and sunny. Vancouver and Victoria, B.C., have just an 11% chance of snow on Chistmas.

But there is hope for some eastern Canadians.

In Toronto and Ottawa, there’s a possibility of flurries on Sunday to cover a bit of the grass on the lawn.

“We could still make it have a Christmas-card look,” Phillips said.

For any place that does get snow, expect it to be patchy, he said.

Even Gander, N.L., the snowiest city in Canada, has just a trace of snow on the ground.

While it’s unusual for most of the country to be without the white stuff on Dec. 25, it’s even more rare for all of Canada to have a white Christmas from coast to coast.

It actually happened in 2008. “I was very excited. That was the only year in 56 years of monitoring that 33 million Canadians had a white Christmas,” Phillips said.

If you are set on waking up Christmas morning with the yard covered in the fluffy stuff year after year, consider moving to Winnipeg.

“Death, taxes and a white Christmas is what you get there,” Phillips said.

On the bright side, Phillips said, navigating the roads should be a breeze this holiday season.

“Travel should be easy with no major snowfall and it keeps the in-laws from staying overnight.”

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Environment/2011/12/21/19153071.html