Sounds of the season could be heard all over Moncton this morning, but it wasn’t Christmas carols - it was the grinding of snow blowers and the scraping of shovels.

More than 22 centimeters of snow has fallen to the ground since about 10 p.m. Tuesday. The storm forced schools to close across the province, but many people didn’t seem to mind.

“It’s perfect snow for making snowmen and building forts,” says parent Nicole Morse.

In Saint John, rain turned to snow before noon and temperatures in the port city have been steadily dropping, causing dangerous driving conditions.

The snow falling Wednesday was wet and heavy, which took its toll on the power lines. At its peak, almost 10,000 customers in New Brunswick were without electricity.

“The majority of the problems were being caused by the wet snow and the amount of moisture in the snow, so we’ve got a lot of calls about wet snow on tree limbs onto lines,” says an NB Power spokesman. “A lot of people last night, in the dark, saw some sparking and some light and things like that.”

The heavy, wet snow is also an issue for people clearing driveways and sidewalks. According to Ambulance New Brunswick, calls of chest pains to 911 go up by 20 per cent the day of and the day after a snowstorm.

“Make sure you dress appropriately, you stretch before going out and as you’re shoveling or running your snow blower take small steps,” says Jean-Marc Dugas of Ambulance New Brunswick. “Take a smaller amount of snow in your shovel and shovel the snow in front of you instead of throwing over your shoulder.”

The snow fell so quickly it was hard for city crews to keep sidewalks clear.

Homeowner Adrien Pellerin was hoping for a more relaxing start to his vacation.

“Today was my first day and, well, I got a nice little surprise to start things off I guess.”

Delays at the Greater Moncton International Airport were minimal but thousands of power outages were reported across the province.

The number of people without electricity grew to 11,000 with about 5,000 outages reported in the Fredericton area.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jonathan MacInnis