If your idea of Christmas is mince pies, sleigh- bells in the snow, and a family feast round a roaring fire, then you’re dreaming of a Dickensian Christmas. For all the elements of what we now think of a traditional Old English Yuletide were largely the invention of that greatest of English writers, Charles Dickens, in his 1847 masterpiece A Christmas Carol. Well the Climate is now moving into a new regime that may bring us back to the climate of the Dickens era, the so called Dalton Minimum (1790-1830). Last winter, London had its first October snow in 70 years and more snow in December, January and February. Bitter cold weather accompanied the snow for weeks at a time.