December 2010 was very reasonable here in the far SE. Problems start arising with perception when comparisons with the north and west start getting drawn in.
Here in Folkestone the month started with 15cm on the ground, the legacy of 4 preceding days that started the ball rolling. By mid afternoon on the 3rd 20cm level snow was on the ground.
The snow eater event overnight 3/4th December melted all trace of this by noon the next day.
A sharp cold front moved across during the evening on Thursday 17th. A rainy 7c at 5pm gave way to a snowy 0c by 8pm and by 10pm 5cm had fallen - very unusual for it to snow on a cold front, let alone settle !
Friday 18th December was bitterly cold, temps around -1c with an afternoon snow shower all the way from the Cheshire Gap that provided another dusting on icy ground. Saturday 19th December say a 7cm fall in 2 hours and Sunday 20th December saw another inch fall from a channel low that edged up the channel clipping the coast.
Monday 21st saw more snow in the evening but then the drip drip drip started here with a couple of days of air temperatures of 2c (36f) and sadly dewpoints of 1c (34f) under cloudy skies.
Hope was re-kindled with what was hoped would be a -10c (850Hpa) NE'ly from late on the 23rd through to Christmas Eve, sadly we didin't quite manage it. Further rain and sleet showers melted most of what had remained. Christmas Eve remained dry and cold and despite cold enough NE'lies the convective North Sea Machine would not fire up. At 30m it was a green Christmas, over them thar hills at 100 metres it remained white. Christmas Day was a cold and sunny 3c. The warm up came late on Boxing day.
I would snap your hand off to get another December like that. By 2010 we had become quite de-sensitised to extreme cold and snow following the 2009/10 epic.