Feeling lonely this holiday season? Try Xsnow. This little app will let it snow on the Unix / Linux desktop. Santa and his reindeer will complete your festive season feeling with moving snowflakes on your desktop, with Santa Claus running all over the screen.

I first installed this 13 or 14 years ago. It was was originally created for Macintosh systems in 1984. One cab create a snowy and Santa-y desktop. You can install it as follows:

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Install xsnow

Debian / Ubuntu / Mint Linux users type the following apt command/apt-get command:
$ sudo apt-get install xsnow
Freebsd users type the following command to install the same:
# cd /usr/ports/x11/xsnow/
# make install clean
OR, try to add the binary package using pkg command:
# pkg_add -r xsnow
OR
# pkg install xsnow
OpenBSD users type the following pkg_add command:
# pkg_add -v xsnow

How Do I Use xsnow?

Open a command-line terminal (select Applications > Accessories > Terminal), and then type the following to starts xsnow:
$ xsnow
Sample outputs:

You can set the background to a blue color and lets it snow white, type:
$ xsnow -bg blue -sc snow
To set the maximum number of snowflakes and runs as fast as possible, type:
$ xsnow -snowflakes 10000 -delay 0
Do not display the trees and Santa Claus running all over the screen, enter:
$ xsnow -notrees -nosanta
For more information about xsnow and other options, please see the manual page by typing man xsnow from the command line:
$ man xsnow

Recommended readings:

• Download Xsnow from the official site.
• Please note that MS-Windows and Mac OS X version attracts one time shareware fee.

If you enjoyed this desktop fun app, you may also like to use the following apps on Linux: