If you’ve ever walked through town during the holidays, under all those twinkling lights and thought, “Imagine this with snow,” you’re not alone. But a true white Christmas in Cape May is a rare thing.

Climatologists put our odds of having snow on the ground on December 25 at only 5–10% in a typical year—much lower than North Jersey’s hill towns and ski country.

That doesn’t mean it never happens. New Jersey’s records show a few standout years when the entire state—from Sussex County down to Cape May—woke up to snow on Christmas morning. The Christmas Eve blizzard of 1966 buried much of New Jersey in snow, and the 1960s ended up being the snowiest decade on record for “white Christmases.”

More recently, 1995 and 2009 both brought what the New Jersey State Climatologist called “statewide white Christmases,” thanks to big storms earlier in December that left at least an inch of snow on the ground on Christmas morning—even down here at the southern tip. In December 2009, a storm on the 19th–20th dumped over a foot and a half of snow in parts of Cape May County, practically guaranteeing a storybook holiday scene.

In most years, Cape May’s Christmas magic comes from Victorian porches wrapped in garlands, candlelit windows, and thousands of white lights—not from deep drifts of snow. Our winters are relatively mild, and many Christmas Days are cool and dry rather than snowy.

But every once in a while, the weather lines up just right. On those rare years—like 1966, 1995, and 2009—the town wakes up to snow on the lawns, along the beachfront, and tucked into the corners of the Washington Street Mall. Locals still talk about those years the way people talk about legendary parades or once-in-a-lifetime sunsets.

So if you’re planning a December visit, you should probably pack a warm coat and a camera—but keep in mind that a “white Christmas” in Cape May is a special exception, not the rule. The good news? The town looks like a Christmas card with or without the snow.