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.

[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.

[lirazel]

Do you have your own Christmas song standards?

[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.

[thenewbuzwuzz]

How interesting. :))

[howsmyenglish]

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