I don't know if any of you guys follow the weather ("eye on the sky") out of the Fairbanks Museum in Saint Johnsbury, but they give little notes about weather every day. I found this one interesting this morning, as this seems to be a hot topic around Christmas:
Pre-Christmas thaws are not uncommon, as average temperatures on the Fairbanks Museum weather records, extending back 125 years, climb about 2 degrees from the 22nd to the 26th.