Crossword Genius

Winter dance party? No, but it's thrown for fun (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

snowball

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'party? no but it's thrown for fun' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'winter dance' is the wordplay.
'winter' becomes 'snow' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dance' becomes 'ball' (ball is a kind of dance).
'snow'+'ball'='SNOWBALL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for snowball that I've seen before include "Cocktail made from lemonade and advocaat" , "Increase rapidly in size - advocaat and lemonade" , "Wintry missile - demonised by 17" , "Heroin and cocaine" , "Quickly get bigger" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.
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