Steve Yonko stands Friday evening in his Lisbon Falls backyard with his homemade snowmaking system. Yonko built the system 20 years ago when he was skiing a lot at Sunday River. He bought a new compressor this year when his wife asked him for a white Christmas. He jokes that he tells his wife that he is the “wizard of winter.” Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Steve Yonko fires up his homemade snowmaking system Friday in the backyard of his home in Lisbon Falls. Yonko built the apparatus 20 years ago to see if it could be done. Last month his wife encouraged him to get it running so they could get into the Christmas spirit. Yonko is a weather watcher for two television stations and the National Weather Service. “I’m a weather nut,“ Yonko said. He says that while his neighbors may think he’s crazy, “I guarantee I was the only one around with a white Christmas.” Andree Kehn/Sun Journal