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Crushed ice gives Fla. family a white Christmas

Almost 20 tons of ice is crushed and spread over the grounds of an oceanfront home in the Keys.
Image: Cyndi Livingston and her grandson play in man-made snow in Florida.
Cyndi Livingston, left, watches grandson Michael Walker play with a snorkeling snowman Friday.Rob O'neal / AP
/ Source: The Associated Press

One Florida Keys family got a white Christmas, despite temperatures in the upper 70s.

Almost 20 tons of ice was crushed Friday and spread over the grounds of Howard Livingston's oceanfront home with a high-pressure hose.

Livingston won The Weather Channel's "Guaranteed White Christmas" contest. He was chosen from hundreds of contestants who submitted videos explaining why their families deserved a white Christmas.

Snowman built
Wearing shorts and flip-flops, Livingston's neighbors romped in the snow piled under palm trees. His 6-year-old grandson helped build a snowman and pitched snowballs.

There has never been a real recorded snowfall in the Florida island chain since the National Weather Service began keeping records in 1870.