Add falling snow to your blog!

Posted: January 1st, 2010 | Filed under: Plugins, Wordpress, javascript | Tags: , , | 3 Comments »

I am testing a few of the plugins for WordPress that will allow you to have snow falling on your website via javascript. Personally I think that could get old but it might be fun to try for a day or two. Click on any images for a larger view.

The first one I tried was Snow, Balloons And More – alternate link

This one allows you to use a variety of images. You can choose one or many, mix & match so to speak. This is located under Settings in your Dashboard.

It looked good, even on my white background.

It does add a small line of credit to the bottom of the page, which I have never seen a plugin do.

Even though the images are cute, I wasn’t overly impressed with this one, mostly because of the line of credit. I understand that plugin creators deserve credit, but this seemed obtrusive to me. It also seemed kind of buggy in Firefox. When I switched to another tab & came back, the snow wasn’t falling but the credit link was still there. The same thing happened when I tested it on a page, until I refreshed. Overall I wouldn’t recommend this one.

The second one I tested was Snow Storm, available here.

This one didn’t look too great on my white background, you could only see the flakes when they passed over something that wasn’t white. However I do think it would still look good on a light background, just not mine – maybe one with a bit more color.

So, I tried it on a site of mine that uses a dark theme, and I have to say, it’s totally cute:

Not only that, but the snow accumulates at the bottom of your screen!

Seriously, how cute is that??

As far as I can see, it doesn’t have any customizable options or add anything to your WordPress Dashboard.

The third one I tried was Let It Snow! which was revamped by the author in 2009. This one was ok, actually it looks the same as Snow Storm, except that the snow doesn’t acculualate & there is a bit more control over the snow. It adds a new section to your dashboard.

It’s nice if you need more options.

Have you tried any of these plugins? Which do you prefer?

3 Comments on “Add falling snow to your blog!”

  1. 1 nkuttler said at 9:28 pm on January 4th, 2010:

    If you don’t want the link to the plugin’s page you can disable it on the settings page and it will be gone forever. I’m a little curious why you don’t want a plugin to link to the author but don’t seem to mind that your theme does the same thing?

    As for the snow stopping, that is a feature that was requested by users. I think it’s a good thing, somebody who wants to read the content on your blog will be distracted if it doesn’t stop snowing. The timeout can be configured as well.

  2. 2 DJ said at 9:32 pm on January 4th, 2010:

    It mostly bothered me because of where it placed it on my page, it kind of stuck out, whereas the theme credit blends in. I wouldn’t mind crediting creators, just didn’t like the way this one was presented.

  3. 3 nkuttler said at 5:52 am on January 5th, 2010:

    Aah, I understand. Unfortunately the link styling is nothing I can control, it’s the theme that’s responsible for that. I even wrote a post about it because I think that theme developers should pay more attention to that detail. But I’ll think about making the link smaller by default, that’s something a plugin can do.