Some parts of France can more or less guarantee a white Christmas, but you need to be fairly high up a mountain - an Alpine village or perhaps a high-altitude Pyrenees resort - to be sure of the white stuff.
To be officially counted as a white Christmas in France there must be 'neige en plein' - snow in the lowland areas - on December 24th or 25th.
The last time this happened was in 2010, 15 years ago.
Long-term weather trends have shown that France is, overall, getting warmer rather than colder.
However a trend is one thing and an individual weather event is another - France already had a cold snap this year which brought snow to large parts of the country, including lowland areas in south-west, central and northern France.
So will that happen again over Christmas?
It might.
Forecasters are now saying that Christmas week is expected to be cold and generally calm across much of the country, with the exception of the south where unsettled weather is expected to persist. There is, however, the possibility of a few snow flurries at lower altitudes between Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.
Weather warnings were issued on Monday in six départements in the south of the country, as unsettled conditions brought rain and snow, with the south-east of the country set to remain unsettled, with persistent rain and snow about 800m in the southern Alps, the Massif Central, and the Pyrénées-Orientales.
Mediterranean regions will remain damp, with snow falling above 700m in the mountains through to December 25th. Across the rest of the country, the weather will be calm and quite cold. A few snow flurries are possible in central and western areas in the morning, but these will have no significant impact.
Une?#gouttefroide venue d'Europe centrale traversera la France d'est en ouest entre le Réveillon et le jour de Noël. Elle pourrait être à l'origine de quelques faibles chutes de #neige jusqu'en plaine entre Rhône-Alpes le centre du pays et la Bretagne. Mais la trajectoire de… pic.twitter.com/3By0aaSvVk
— La Chaîne Météo (@lachainemeteo) December 21, 2025
The situation will change little over the weekend, with calm, cold weather persisting across most of the country. Conditions will remain more unsettled in the southern regions, with snow falling as low as 800m in the mountains. Frost will be widespread in the mornings.
As for New Year, a cold front from Central Europe could quickly move across the country bringing a possible further risk of snow that is not expected to have any significant impact.
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