Despite being a snow-based event, organisers of the ski jump in Obserstdorf, the International Ski Federation, took the decision to postpone Sunday night's event until Monday, due to "falling snow and strong winds".

The ski jumping will now take place at 530pm Monday, the federation announced on Twitter. Obersdorf is in the Bavarian Alps, southern Germany.

Meanwhile, residents of the capital may have missed out – just – on a white Christmas, but woke on Monday to find several centimetres of snow had settled overnight, in a snowfront that was working its way south through the country during Monday.

Some five centimetres fell on the capital and surrounding regions, according to the weather service.

The blanket of white snow – the first major snow of the winter – caused some to take to Twitter to mock the ongoing Pegida protests (Europeans Against the Islamization of the West), and their anti-foreigner, anti-immigrant stance.

Under the hashtag #schneegida, one joked "You got out in the streets and don't know if you're still in Germany", while another said: "I have nothing against snow – so long as it conforms to our climate turns into rain."

Biberach in southern Germany recorded the lowest overnight temperature, according to the German weather service, with temperatures plunging to minus 24.

Parts of the Alps saw up to 40 centimetres of snow, but northern Germany should see temperatures rise to around 4 degrees on Monday and Tuesday, with rain washing away the snow, while eastern and southern Germany remain freezing and prone to snow.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, the weather was responsible for several car accidents, including one road-clearing vehicle that rolled over. One woman was killed in an accident near Dortmund. 

New Year's Eve, according to the weather service, will be a mixed picture. Largely cloudy in the north, with 6 degrees on the coast and 2 degrees in Berlin, with possible rain and some cloud to mar the fireworks, although sunny and minus 8 in the Bavarian Alps.

New Year's Day will see some bitterly cold temperatures, down to minus 10 in Munich and minus 15 in Alpine regions, with Cologne at freezing and Hamburg and the north between zero and four degrees.