Major Snowstorm Delights Sightseers, Delays Travelers : Weather: A foot or more of thick flakes blankets the U.S. from the Plains states to New England. By air or land, travel is problematic.

Dreamers of a white Christmas got an early yuletide gift Tuesday as a major snowstorm fell across a great swath of America, spreading a pale, glistening blanket from the plains of Oklahoma to the hills of New England, with accumulations growing as high as a foot or more in some places.

The thick, heavy flakes were breathtaking to look at, every bit as beautiful as any movie-lot version of wintry zest. “ ‘Dr. Zhivago’ in New York!” whooped Andy Nathan, an Ohio vacationer climbing aboard one of the horse-drawn carriages that saunter through Central Park.

Here in Gotham, where intermittent flurries turned into heavy powder soon after nightfall, a group of carolers sang amid a gentle shower of white near Grand Central Station. “This snow really gets you into the holiday spirit, doesn’t it?” said Ann Feagle, accepting donations from a small but grateful crowd of commuters who had paused to listen.

In Cleveland, a half-foot of snow had fallen by midday. Visitors to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame could look out of the huge glass windows and watch the specks of white swirl above Lake Erie. “When you’re in the center of the building, anywhere, it’s like being in the center of the storm,” Jeff Hagen, the museum’s spokesman, said by phone. “It’s very pretty, very spectacular.”

But if the snowflakes bestirred the Christmas spirit, they also created a slip-sliding nuisance for thousands of holiday travelers and shoppers alike. Airlines reported frequent delays and cancellations. Traffic was often a nightmare on slick streets. School closings were a constant from Indiana to Connecticut.

“This snowstorm was something of a businessman’s special, I’ll tell you that,” said Marshall Cooper, director of neighborhood services for the city of Newark, N.J. “It hit at rush hour in the morning, took a rest, then came back for the rush hour in the evening.”

The worst of the day’s inconveniences were reported in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic states. In Akron, Ohio, most traffic was at a standstill by 4 p.m. Roger Rounds, an executive with a moving company, was 90 minutes into a trip home that usually takes only a half hour. “I probably have another 90 minutes to go,” he said in an interview over his cellular phone.

In Indianapolis, Grace Minton braved drifts of up to 3 feet, venturing out for groceries in her car. “They tell you to turn the wheel the way you’re skidding, and I did that, but I still slid into a pile of snow,” she said. “I paid three boys $10 to push me out. That wasn’t too much, was it?”

Those who could do so simply stayed indoors. Richard Tobias, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, read the last of 10 student term papers on the modern English novel, occasionally looking at the sleet and snow outside his home. “I’m happy I don’t have to go out,” he said. “I see people outside, scratching snow off their cars, but I’m just about to have a glass of sherry.”

The storm system, now mixing with the moist air over the Atlantic Ocean, was expected to dump even more snow throughout New England today.

Special correspondent Mike Clary in Miami contributed to this story.