An ice storm brought a whole new meaning to the term "White Christmas" in the Northeast, Midwest, and even parts of Canada as many remained without power for the holidays.

According to USA Today, thousands will be without power until Friday. Power is slowly being restored in Michigan and Maine, but tens of thousands of people who endured a dark Christmas could be without power until Friday night, despite round-the-clock efforts to get electricity flowing again.

Further, according to NPR, Christmas is less than merry and far from bright for hundreds of thousands of families from the upper Midwest to the far northeast and into Canada, where ice storms have downed power lines, leaving many households in the cold and dark.

This is the worst holiday week in the 126-year history of Michigan's largest power company, Consumers Energy. The outages began over the weekend, affecting nearly 350,000 customers. Power has been restored to many, but more than 120,000 remain in the dark.

Consumer Energy spokeswoman Deborah Dodd says because the weather has remained frigid, nothing has melted. "For every quarter-inch of ice we get on a line, that equals 500 pounds of pressure on an electric line," she explains. "In some places we got an inch of ice on trees and surfaces, so it's horrible working conditions. Today in some places, we're expecting winds to pick up, which doesn't help our efforts at all." Dodd says there are nearly 3,000 field and office workers pitching in, including workers from 11 other states and the District of Columbia.

The ice storms also hit Toronto hard, where nearly 300,000 customers lost power. At midday Wednesday, Toronto Hydro reported just 72,000 still had no electricity. More snow is expected Thursday in Maine and parts of Michigan, along with frigid temperatures that could keep ice from melting off power lines and tree branches, posing new risks for outages.