Snowflakes Under Microscope

The snowflake is often a traditional seasonal image/motif used around the Christmas period, especially in Europe, representing the traditional White Christmas. During this period it is quite popular in the former Soviet Union to make paper snowflakes by folding a piece of paper several times, cutting out a pattern with scissors and then unfolding it, resulting paper snowflakes are then dipped into milk and glued to windows.
Snowflakes are also often used as symbols representing winter or cold conditions. For example, tires which enhance traction during harsh winter driving conditions are labelled with a snowflake on the mountain symbol. A snowflake was the symbol of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Multiple snowflake symbols are encoded in Unicode: "snowflake" at U+2744 (❄); "tight trifoliate snowflake" at U+2745 (❅); and "heavy chevron snowflake" at U+2746 (❆).