Jyoti Kamal, Shimla: Shimla is all set for Christmas, and along with all the goodies and the gifts, people there are waiting for snow this season.

The Christmas trees and Santas are in place, hotels have all been decked up and the New Year mood is just about picking up on the streets of Shimla. But it's only the distant hills that those wishing for snow can look up to yet again. Tourists are disappointed.

"Where is the snow?" they ask. “We took leave and came here to see snow, but there is no snow. How much longer can we wait?” complains one tourist.

“Shimla's hustle and bustle always attracts people for Christmas and New Year, but of course the white Christmas is always a hope,” says a Shimla hotelier and resident Shrikant Peri. Hopes of a white Christmas this year had increased when Shimla experienced snowfall after a gap of ten years on December 10. But it's been rather disappointing ever since.

Hotels, meanwhile, have arranged heated swimming pools and hot Jacuzzis for the holiday tourists. “It's always a hope in Shimla that it snows on Christmas, we hope it does, but even if it does not we have other things like Jacuzzis in the open and heated swimming pools to attract tourists,” says hotelier David Mathew.