When schools in Raleigh, North Carolina, closed for snow on 12 February 2014, Penn and Kim Holderness did what they do best: they wrote a song about it. “Snow Day: The Musical – #snOMG” follows the family through their whole day off, in order, and it quickly became the second viral hit for the couple behind “Xmas Jammies”.
Snow Day: The Musical – the video
The song is an original, written by the family, and it runs through their snow day activities in the order they happened. Penn and Kim sing it with their two children, Lola and Penn Charles, against the backdrop of their snowed-in neighbourhood. The production was a local effort: the family credited their 13-year-old neighbour Ella for helping with the filming and neighbour Donnie for driving.
Raleigh’s Valentine’s week snowstorm
The video grew out of the snowstorm that hit the Raleigh area in the days before Valentine’s Day 2014, which WUNC, the public radio station for the region, covered as its Valentine’s Day storm. The Holdernesses learned on 12 February that the children would have a snow day, and turned the day into the song while the snow was still fresh.
In central North Carolina, snow that settles is unusual enough to close schools, so a snow day is a genuine event for families. That is the experience the song taps into: a whole family at home, a neighbourhood suddenly white, and a day with no plan except to enjoy it. WUNC shared the finished video on 14 February, predicting that the duo had a second hit on their hands, and WTOP reported that it was already creating buzz online.
Who are the Holderness Family?
Penn Holderness is a former television host and news anchor who worked at WNCN-TV in Raleigh and hosted HGTV’s Designer Finals. Kim Holderness is a former competitive dancer and TV reporter who worked at Inside Edition from 2004 to 2008. In 2013 they founded Holderness Family Productions, and Penn ran the Raleigh video production firm Greenroom, credited on the video.
Their “Xmas Jammies” video, a parody of Will Smith’s “Miami” made as a digital Christmas card in December 2013, was their first big viral hit. Snow Day followed two months later, and the family has kept making parody songs and sketches ever since. Penn and Kim went on to win season 33 of The Amazing Race, launched a podcast now called Laugh Lines with Kim & Penn Holderness, and wrote books including Everybody Fights (2021) and ADHD is Awesome (2024).
More snow day fun
For more families making the most of the snow, see Jay Venini’s Backyard Luge: A Sochi-Inspired Family Project and Human Bowling: Devin Graham’s Snowy Adventure-Film Mashup.
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