Songs About Snow

After the hustle and bustle of the holidays, winter continues on. In fact, the first day of winter doesn’t even come until a few days before Christmas. So, while the snowy atmosphere is often associated with the holidays, winter continues all the way into March, meaning songs about snow fit perfectly for January and even February. In the past, we’ve put up blogs of winter songs that aren’t associated with Christmas. For a list like this, that was unavoidable as many “Christmas” songs reference the snow, and I couldn’t help but include a few. We hope at least one of these songs about snow puts you in a wintry mood.    

“Winterlude” - Bob Dylan 

This one is more about his love, but Bob Dylan does paint a picture of a winter season full of snowflakes that cover, and the warm logs of a fire he can use to cuddle up next to her. The song is simple in structure but it’s a good song to play on a snowy day. 

“Winter White Hymnal” - Fleet Foxes

This single from Fleet Foxes describes a group traveling in the snow with red scarves tied around their necks, swaddled in coats. After the release of this wintry song, many other artists began to release covers of the Fleet Foxes track, most notably the a cappella group Pentatonix.  

“Let It Snow” - Frank Sinatra 

There are many, many versions of the classic “Let it Snow.” The original recording came from Vaughn Monroe with the Norton Sisters in 1945. But there’s something magical about Frank Sinatra’s version from 1950 that’s worth highlighting. Why worry about snow when there’s a crackling fire to keep you warm inside? 

“I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” - Billie Holiday 

Another Christmas standard that is all about snow. Holiday’s version was one of the first performances of the now classic, recorded in 1937. The snow’s falling outside, but that doesn’t matter because inside, she’s got her love to keep her warm. It’s all in the lyrics. The singer doesn’t mind weathering the storm. And neither should you, apparently. 

“Shut Your Eyes” - Snow Patrol 

This song immediately transports you to a snowy winter day with the lyrics, “shut your eyes and think of somewhere cold and caked in snow.” The song describes a secret space the “we” in the song share, and I like to think of it as a snowy wonderland. This place is a source of calm. I love that imagery. 

“Love Like Winter” - AFI 

In “Love Like Winter” the band creates an image of a world where it’s December every day. The singer is made of “sugar and ice.” The love the couple shares is like winter, cold and distant. Beyond the lyrics, the music video for this captures the beauty of a snowy day.  

“Sleigh Ride” - Ella Fitzgerald 

Like some of the other Christmas classics on this list, there are hundreds of versions of “Sleigh Ride” but Ella Fitzgerald’s is my favorite of the bunch. The soulful upbeat energy feels so cozy to listen to on a snowy day. The lyrics match the vibes too, singing of a couple taking a sleigh ride through a wonderland of snow, a wintery fairyland.  

“Purple Snowflakes” - Marvin Gaye 

This 1960s psychedelic Marvin Gaye track paints for us a picture of a love story to the backdrop of falling snowflakes and winter bliss. As blankets of white light up the night, the people are (you guessed it) inside by the warm fire, waiting for the spring flowers to ring in the next season. 

“The Tip of the Iceberg” - Owl City 

This Owl City song takes you on a journey from the beginning to the end of winter. The song begins with “welcome back winter once again” and the set of lyrics wish the “powdery paradise” farewell. “The Tip of the Iceberg” captures a person who can take all elements of winter because the love he receives from his love keeps them warm. They’ll brave glaciers and frozen lakes, whatever it takes. And when it’s time for the powdery paradise to go, he will bid it farewell until next time.  

“Snowflake” by SIA 

This SIA track compares her lover to a snowflake because there’s no one like them. Like how every snowflake is different, there’s no one like her love. And the metaphor continues describing the importance of keeping the snowflake safe until the winter when she isn’t as needed for protection. “Snowflake” comes from a Christmas album from SIA featuring all kinds of wintery songs to play during the season.  

“snowfall” by Øneheart, reidenshi 

There are no lyrics to this song, but it still manages to expertly capture the beauty of a snowy day. Throw this mystical and mesmerizing track on just as the snow begins to fall.  

“Snowbank Blues” - The Backseat Lovers 

“Snowbank Blues” follows a man jaded by his monotonous work schedule and missing his love who’s “a thousand miles away.” He’d get some air, but “snow has swallowed up our little town.” In essence, this song compares the singer’s melacholy feeling to the bitter cold and gloomy feeling of a winter day. Instead of looking at the beauty, this song captures the “after” feeling, when the snow isn’t pretty any longer and what remains is mostly discolored sludge. 

“Mr. White Christmas (Snow Miser)” - Rich Chambers 

It can’t be a post about snow without including a song featuring The Snow Miser himself. Mr. White Christmas. Mr. Snow. Mr. Ten Below. Most know him best from the 1974 classic, The Year Without a Santa Claus where the Snow Miser and his brother The Heat Miser are at odds, singing about which of them is the superior being. In Snow Miser’s bit, he talks about turning everything he touches into snow and how he never wants a song over 40 degrees. Fans of the snowy days will relate to his song.  

“Snow” by Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Danny Kaye, Trudy Stevens 

If there’s one song that truly feels like an ode to snow, it’s this one. The singers want to wash their hands and face in snow, see men built out of snow, throw snowballs and create houses of snow, and more. This captures the joy of a winter wonderland and plays into the common thinking that it isn’t Christmas without snow.  

“Snowblind” - Black Sabbath 

This one you could argue isn’t about the kind of snow this blog is talking about here, but Black Sabbath uses many wintry metaphors in the lyrics, so I’m counting it. 

There’s certainly a love for snow and the wintery season present in songs from the last 100 years, and there’s bound to be more over time. Winter can be a time of gloom for some, but it can also serve as a season of rebirth. Like the snow on the ground that melts with time, we too will emerge into the glimmers of warmth coming in spring, if hang on just a little longer

Written by Kristen Petronio