diff --git a/src/app/atom.coffee b/src/app/atom.coffee
index 3ceb77cd8..455382926 100644
--- a/src/app/atom.coffee
+++ b/src/app/atom.coffee
@@ -25,7 +25,9 @@ _.extend atom,
       new LoadTextMatePackagesTask(asyncTextMatePackages).start()
 
   getPackages: ->
-    @getPackageNames().map((name) -> Package.build(name)).filter (pack) -> pack?
+    @packages ?= @getPackageNames().map((name) -> Package.build(name))
+                                   .filter((pack) -> pack?)
+    new Array(@packages...)
 
   loadTextMatePackages: ->
     pack.load() for pack in @getTextMatePackages()
diff --git a/src/packages/snippets/spec/snippets-spec.coffee b/src/packages/snippets/spec/snippets-spec.coffee
index d47e0ea13..1c8ed070f 100644
--- a/src/packages/snippets/spec/snippets-spec.coffee
+++ b/src/packages/snippets/spec/snippets-spec.coffee
@@ -250,6 +250,7 @@ describe "Snippets extension", ->
 
   describe "snippet loading", ->
     beforeEach ->
+      atom.packages = null
       jasmine.unspy(LoadSnippetsTask.prototype, 'start')
       spyOn(LoadSnippetsTask.prototype, 'loadAtomSnippets').andCallFake -> @snippetsLoaded({})
       spyOn(LoadSnippetsTask.prototype, 'loadTextMateSnippets').andCallFake -> @snippetsLoaded({})