A white Christmas meant joy for betting punters and large payouts for bookmakers.It was the first time in almost a decade that snowfall was seen on December 25th.
One bookmaker said it was expecting to hand over €25,000 to almost 1,000 customers. Mr Paddy Power said: "It's great news for punters, but a wipe out for us. Every year we take some bets on snow falling, but this year every Tom, Dick and Harry got stuck in, it was like an avalanche of money."
He said most of the bets were small but there was more money bet on a white Christmas than ever before.