# Kids' superstitions: How to get a snow day **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 9, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505 "2010-12-09T04:38:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/1 "2010-12-09T04:38:54Z")
My credulous sons think that if you put a spoon under your pillow the night before, or wear your pajamas inside-out, you’ll have no school the next day. I’d never heard of this before. Had you? Are there any other such kids’ superstitions in your neck of the woods? ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/2 "2010-12-09T04:40:37Z")
I used to do a snow dance (like a rain dance). I think it only worked once, but we got three days off because of it. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/3 "2010-12-09T04:59:03Z")
Wear plastic bags (usually, the ones that newspapers will come in) over your socks and in your shoes the prior day. It means you’re expecting deep, wet, awe-inspiring snow. Or so kids thought where I grew up. Other than that, the only other thing I ever remember kids doing is praying ala Bart Simpson. ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/4 "2010-12-09T05:34:27Z")
Our whole kindergarten class used to do a snow dance and song, and it always worked. (I have my suspicions now that the teacher was privy to the forecast for the next day.) ---
**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/5 "2010-12-09T07:33:26Z")
Christmas Eve and incoming snow were the only times I think I ever believed in God. And prayed like hell to Him for it. (That’s right, I said Him - I’m supposed to be a Catholic). Since then, the Big Guy and I have tried to establish a mutual assured destruction treaty. Negotiations are ongoing. Dammit - the dealer always wins. I don’t think he’s negotiating in good faith; perhaps I can find an arbitrator. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/6 "2010-12-09T14:31:16Z")
I recently heard that flushing ice cubes down the toilet is one of the superstitions. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/7 "2010-12-09T16:34:07Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > or wear your pajamas inside-out, you’ll have no school the next day. I heard that one more than 50 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/8 "2010-12-09T17:19:06Z")
I had a brief look in some folklore references: there are a lot of references to children’s rhymes to encourage snow, in multiple languages, but I found less on superstitions. There’s a more general superstition about wearing clothes inside-out, which is generally considered to bad luck or to invite trouble, but it could as easily be independent invention. Inversion of the ordinary. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/9 "2010-12-09T17:50:38Z")
Even through high school, if we got a bit of snow but not enough for a delayed start or a day off, we would inquire as to which traitorous classmate neglected to turn their pajamas inside out before bed. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/10 "2010-12-09T19:08:24Z")
Bah, that’s all _amateur_ snow-day superstition. When I was in high school, the teachers taught us about St. Scholastica, the patron saint of snow days. No, really. ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/11 "2010-12-10T01:42:15Z")
I don’t remember what caused snow days, but when it did start snowing kids would yell “Hooray for Head & Shoulders!” (Snow, apparently, was dandruff from the angels in Heaven.) ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/12 "2010-12-10T05:00:32Z")
I miss snow days. Even when I was completely snowed in last year for a week (a Corvette cannot negotiate a 3-foot berm of plowed snow very well) I still had to work remotely. I want a snow day! ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/13 "2010-12-10T05:43:51Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > Wear plastic bags (usually, the ones that newspapers will come in) over your socks and in your shoes the prior day. It means you’re expecting deep, wet, awe-inspiring snow. Or so kids thought where I grew up. And of course if it doesn’t work, you get to stay home due to fulminant athlete’s foot. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/14 "2010-12-10T05:44:22Z")
My kids did the inside out pajamas one. FTR, it doesn’t really work in Florida. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/15 "2010-12-10T13:08:51Z")
Living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan did it for me. Plenty o’ snow days every year. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/16 "2010-12-10T13:13:00Z")
The closest thing I’ve heard about was that either El Nino or La Nina would mean no snow days. That, and we always joked about spraying down the superintendent’s porch so he would think it too icy to go out. (And I just now got the much worse implications :eek:) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kids-superstitions-how-to-get-a-snow-day/563505/17 "2010-12-14T14:06:21Z")
My wife just found these articles: > **[Snow-Day Superstition](https://www.npr.org/sections/talk/2008/01/snowday_superstition_1.html/)** > > Wear your PJs inside out and put a spoon under your pillow and win a snow day! > **[Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos](https://www.yahoo.com/)** > > Latest news coverage, email, free stock quotes, live scores and video are just the beginning. Discover more every day at Yahoo!