Are you dreaming of a White Christmas, just like the one Bing Crosby sang about?

Well, as the rock band Aerosmith sang, Dream On.

Despite all the holiday season cards, movies and television shows depicting white Christmases, most of the United States and the rest of the world rarely experience them. And that includes Lawrence and most of Kansas.

“It’s always iffy for us,” said Mike Akulow, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Topeka.

So iffy that during a 67-year-period from 1939 to 2003 there have only been 14 Christmases when at least a trace of snow was recorded on Dec. 24-26, according to Kansas climatological data.

That means about once every five years there might be snow on the ground in Lawrence on Christmas, or a 21 percent chance, said Mary Knapp, Kansas climatologist. There is an 11 percent to 21 percent chance for a white Christmas for most of Kansas, she said.

Even when there has been snow on or around Christmas in Lawrence, weather records show the largest amounts aren’t that large: Dec. 24, 1948, 3 inches; Dec. 25, 1987, 1.5 inches; and Dec. 26, 1939, 2.5 inches.

“December is really a dry month,” Knapp said. “Epic, or large, snow storms are usually early or late in the season, meaning November or February and March.”

Thus, there is a slightly higher chance for snow around New Year’s Day than Christmas, Knapp said. During the three-day period Dec. 31-Jan. 2, Lawrence has seen measurable snowfall 16 times out of 67 years, or about a one in four probability.

Weather records show the highest probability for a white Christmas in Kansas is in the Flint Hills area from Wabaunsee County to Emporia, where it ranges from 26 percent to 40 percent, Knapp said. The lowest snow probability is less than 10 percent in southeast Kansas.

Only about once every five years does Lawrence get to see a scene like this with both Christmas decorations and snow. Meteorologists say December is a dry month and receiving snowfall on or around Christmas is iffy at best.

“Generally, if they get any moisture in southeast Kansas it is rain more than snow, but you can still have snowstorms there,” Knapp said.

Nationwide, the best chances for white Christmases can be found in New England and the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Akulow said.

So if white Christmases aren’t that common, why does popular culture always associate Christmas with snow?

“I think for most people snow and white Christmases conjure up Christmases of the past when they were a child,” Akulow said. “Christmas decorations look better in the snow. It gives kind of the perfect atmosphere for Christmas reminiscing.”

The association of Christmas and snow is so strong that many adults may be conditioned to think they have experienced more white Christmases than they really have, Akulow said. According to Knapp, people become brainwashed about snow and Christmases because of references to them in everything from songs to classic literature such as “A Christmas Carol,” said Knapp.

“If you look at the time period when Charles Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” (published in 1843), you find that it was abnormally cold and snowy in England and not necessarily typical of its average climatic patterns,” Knapp said. “It wasn’t a coincidence that Charles Dickens had London covered in snow.”

It doesn’t appear that this year will bring a white Christmas to Lawrence. Although weather forecasters are predicting a mostly cold week here, Saturday — Christmas Day — is expected to be sunny with a high of 32 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.