It does seem crazy that they've gone to the time, trouble & expense of coding a snow covered appearance for every single item in the game only to use them for a few weeks every year.
I know that lot of you will disagree with me but I would personally be happy to forgo snow altogether in exchange for a night-time mode where all the buildings could be lit up from within, larger decorations could be floodlit and streetlamps could be used to provide illumination elsewhere.
Imagine the extra design possibilities and challenges that would bring to the game, and the whole thing could be tied in to the digital clock tower that already detects your local time, that way the second appearance would get used roughly 50%of the time instead of the current 10-15%.
I know, I'm dreaming, but wouldn't that be something.?