Hehh, we have that phenomenon as well. What it does here is to usually snow some time before Christmas for a little, even as early as November, and then thaw off in time for Christmas, which is almost always 'green', and then start for real in January. And that's not something only Munich does, all of middle Europe does that, and if I remember correctly, in my year in England, that happened as well. So it's not so badly fudged, provided their Christmas is grey and wet...

Yep, but definitely a time scale that makes sense.