Spain, by comparison to Germany, has only a two-week winter break, as does Italy, while England sits at the opposite end of the spectrum: Between the Premier League and the FA Cup, the holiday season is extremely congested, making it a traditional make-or-break-point for many campaigns.

WSJ: The Secret of Germany's Success

Winter lasted only two months a year, and our family turned quite British for this season.

NPR: In The Kitchen With Madhur Jaffrey

His power had been shut off, so he faced a New England winter with only two woodstoves to provide heat.

NPR: Neighbor Sours On Property Sale To Vt. Governor

The country has competed at the Winter Olympics since 1936, but only picked up two bronze medals in that time.

BBC: Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

The country's winter temperatures, however, are one of only two differences between homeless children in Ulan Bator and those, say, in Manila or Rio de Janeiro.

ECONOMIST: The street children are the symptom of a bigger problem

Most of last winter the country's second city, Ganje, had to make do with only two hours of electricity a day.

ECONOMIST: Wretchedly oil-rich Azeris

Amid the Web site's offerings of wild burgundy snails and lobster mac-and-cheese, we found only one cupcake option at the time of our order: lemon "Winter Wonderland, " made by Two Hearts Bakery in San Francisco.

WSJ: Testing Mail-Order Cupcakes