I am trying to create a falling snow effect inside a snow globe.  I have been using nParticles in Maya ´09 but I am having trouble rendering them. 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated?

What kind of snow globe snow are you shooting for?
Little bits of styrofoam?
Glittery sparkley bits?
Or a more snowflake like snow?
The process could be different depending on your desired final result.

I am trying to make it as realistic as possible, glass, snow, wood base.  At the moment I am working on getting the snow right.

I guess something along the lines of this picture.  I am kinda aiming on getting it to settle on the bottom whilst a figurine rotated in the middle of the globe.  My final aim is to create a repeatable animation.

This may help—http://area.autodesk.com/tutorials/rain_and_snow

check this out, its a brand new tutorial on how to make snow in maya 2010.

http://www.labs.ravenproduktion.se

eric | http://www.ravenproduktion.se

Have you tried using an omni emitter to set an initial state on generated particles in a uniform field in the shape of a sphere?  Instance the snow flakes onto those particles set as initial state in the uniform field?  Create a sphere and set the particles to colide with the sphere and make transparent ( or use the sphere you made with what-ever glass material you have assigned to it) I dont have a clue as to simulate the liquid in the globe.