Everyone loves snow at Christmas but how do they make it in movies?

There is a whole range of artificial snow used in film and TV production, with different types of snow used to cover different surfaces or create different effects.

• Paper snow looks fantastically real and is biodegradable but is hard work to clear up and has to be shoveled away just like the real thing.
• Tissue snow decays quicker but is more like dust and remarkably is not fire proof.
• Plastic snow and polythene snow are dust free but as the name suggests are not bio-degradable, so are generally used only indoors.
• Starch snow is biodegradable but leaves a sticky residue which is not popular with historic buildings or sites of special scientific interest. It also acts like snow when wet and can be dangerously slippy.
• Foam snow looks good in close up but to cover a large area is labour-intensive and the foam can blow away in big detergent bubbles.

Despite snow being a rare occurrence on the streets of the capital, it makes a more regular appearance in the London of the big screen, with films such Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually, and Match Point, all receiving the snow treatment.

The biggest users of snow are commercials, where snow seems to be obligatory short-hand for the festive season.

So, this Christmas as you watch snow gently falling across the TV specials, spare a thought for those involved in the making, spreading and clearing up of the essential yule-tide special effect.