greetings from Aussiedom, where no-one understands about mistletoe

[deird1]

Currently stuck in bed fighting off a virus, so I thought I'd pass the time by telling you all about Australian Christmas.

Christmas in Australia is like Christmas in Britain, but hot. The end.


Okay, so there's a bit more to it...

Our traditions are, basically, British. We have the roast dinner, the Christmas pudding, the bonbons (crackers), the tree with tinsel, Santa, stockings, nativity scenes, Carols by Candlelight, the works.

(The reason I say "British" is because I have experienced two Christmasses in Germany. Half the traditions were "Wow, this makes so much more sense now that I see it happening in winter"; the other half were "...this is all weird and German, and why the hell does Santa look all wrong?". As far as I can tell, every time the Christmas tradition is different for different countries, we've picked the British version.)

However... it's hot. And light until really late in the evening.

Our "Carols by Candlelight" is usually a stage in the middle of a grassy area. People will sit on picnic rugs and sing along with the carols - and eventually, for maybe the last half hour, we might light candles. Or, actually, turn on fake candles, because we're coming into bushfire season.

We still have people decorating the outside of their houses with lights. But you have to wait until 9pm to walk around and actually see how it looks, because it's too light outside.

We do have the roast dinner, but we also often have salads, seafood, and icecream. Who wants hot food in summer?

Instead of indoor party games, we opt for backyard cricket.

And while Santa still looks like Santa, the Santa suits are made of the thinnest, lightest, coolest material imaginable.

Comments

[vass]

And the carols are all still about snow. This can provoke snarling from overheated shoppers.

[deird1]

Yeah, totally. My son has just learned Jingle Bells. He’s too young to get why it’s weird.

[megpie71]

Oh, but the shops try to get the right seasonal ambiance by turning the air-conditioning right the way up, to the point where staff can need a cardigan to keep warm. Which leads to the lovely experience of finishing your shopping (or your day's work) and stepping outside into the carpark (which isn't air-conditioned, and is usually a large expanse of black tarmac with fairly few, fairly small trees) and being hit in the face by the consequent wave of heat.

So much seasonal fun.

[frayadjacent]

I'm sorry you're ill! And yes, Christmas in Australia prepared me well for traditions in the UK. Is the roast dinner typically turkey? (Does the word 'roast' already imply a specific type of meat? So much I never learned!)

I always found I struggled to care about Christmas in December, but come May I was longing for some Christmas lights.

[deird1]

Yeah, in Europe I would start feeling Christmassy around May too. :)

I have never in my life had roast turkey. “A roast” implies roast meat along with roast vegies, but the type of meat is unspecified. At Christmas, it’s usually chicken.

[immer_am_lesen]

Chicken?
It's always been 'Christmas Ham' in all the ads, and all the family dos I've attended. :-)
(some cold roast chook is often there to add to your plate, but 'the ham' seems to be the big deal/ even centrepiece, meat-wise.)

[deird1]

Really? I've always seen chicken.

(This year we're having both: hot roast chicken, and cold ham.)

[frayadjacent]

Heh, I was just chatting with a (British) coworker who lamented their tradition of turkey at Christmas, wishing it was chicken instead. :)

[lirazel]

Do you have your own Christmas song standards?

[megpie71]

There are some Australian Christmas carols and songs ("The Three Drovers", "Carol of the Birds", etc - I'm not too sure of the status of "Six White Boomers" these days) but generally we get the standard Northern Hemisphere stuff, complete with the emphasis on snow, cold weather and so on. Given the average temperature in most of the country over Chrimble is something over 30C (and that most of the country doesn't get snow even in the middle of winter - half the country is tropical, for crying out loud) it does tend to come across as a bit of wishful thinking.

Then again, I have a seasonal rant about things like "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and "In The Deep Midwinter" anyway, because it's clear they're written by people who haven't ever really considered weather conditions anywhere outside Britain.

[lirazel]

Interesting! I guess I thought you might have your own whole brand of pop Christmas songs that are, like, the opposite of "The Christmas Song" and "Let It Snow" and "Walking in a Winter Wonderland."

[deird1]

We have an "Aussie Jingle Bells"! I'll let you google - but suffice it to say that it begins with "Dashing through the bush..."

Most of our Christmas imagery still emphasises snow, reindeer, and so forth. It's quite ridiculous.

[lirazel]

Watched the MV!

That tickles me.

[immer_am_lesen]

How about the carol 'Christmas Day'? "The North wind is tossing the leaves, the red dust lies over the town, the sparrows are under the eaves, and the grass in the paddocks is brown...as we lift up our voices and sing, to the Christ-child, the heavenly king"? :-)

[zeborah]

New Zealand has a bunch -- "Pūkeko in a ponga tree" on the secular side, and "Te Harinui" on the Christian side, come to mind immediately.

(I've also done a filk "I'm dreaming of a bright Christmas" but it takes time for these things to catch on to the whole country....)

I feel like we're accreting Christmas traditions that are appropriate to our shores and climes, but it is a pretty slow process. And of course the Coca Cola Santa still reigns supreme.

[rahirah]

Saving that we are in the Northern Hemisphere, so that it gets dark early, this is very like Christmas in Phoenix. We make lip service to it being winter, but really people are still wandering about in shorts.

[deird1]

I'd feel right at home. :)

[thenewbuzwuzz]

How interesting. :))

[deird1]

I'm glad it is. :)

[howsmyenglish]

I'm curious: what did you find weird about German Christmas traditions?

[deird1]

Okay, bear in mind my main experience here is from Munich, staying with a family. So some of these things might be Bavaria-specific, or even family-I-was-staying-with-and-their-friends-specific.

German Christmas Traditions I Found Odd:
- Santa does not look like Santa, but rather like a cross between Santa and the Pope.

- The Christmas trees were decorated with lots of bright baubles and hanging objects, but no tinsel!

- The nativity scenes were EPIC. Christmas markets sold tonnes of teeny tiny objects like chairs, cups, spades, letterboxes... and everyone added even more household objects to their nativity scene each year.

- The Christ Child brought the presents, as signified by a little bell ringing in the adjacent room.

- The main celebration happened on Christmas Eve.


Other than that, it was mainly the lack of things that I noticed. No crackers, no Christmas pudding, and so forth.

[howsmyenglish]

This is very interesting. I asked because I am familiar with the German Christmas and not with the Australian (or British for that matter), so I'm extrapolating from what you said on how Australian Christmas is celebrated. I'm still not sure about the Santa not looking like Santa thing, I've even googled Australian and German Santas to compare, but i still don't get it))) Also, i spent quite some time reading about the Christmas pudding: believe it or not I've only ever met one reference to it, in Agatha Christie's "the adventure of the Christmas pudding", so I assumed it was not too popular. I mean I read a lot and lot of books written by British authors, watch a lot of British films and series, but only one Christmas pudding in all of them.
So, I've learned a lot! Also, that the German Stollen is a variety of British Christmas cake, so they're not too far apart :)

[deird1]

Okay, so the best picture I can find:


The second Santa is the one I encountered in Bavaria. Pope-style hat, shepherd's crook, vestments... and yet still somehow Santa.


Christmas pudding is extremely popular in both Britain (I believe) and Australia. It's on sale (pre-cooked) at every supermarket, and plenty of people make it from scratch. Every family Christmas I've encountered has some version of it.

[howsmyenglish]

wow! this really must have been some special Bavarian Santa, I don't think I've ever seen a Santa like this!

Do you cook your Christmas pudding or but it from the store?

[deird1]

I prefer to cook my pudding, but this year we're getting a store-bought one.