Christmas in Australia – PLAYWORKEATREPEAT

Every year, when Christmas rolls around, I have the same thought. I really wish I lived in the northern hemisphere. I can’t help feeling a bit of Christmas envy when I picture snow, winter coats, Christmas markets and mugs of hot chocolate with marshmallows. It all looks so cosy, and it just makes sense. It matches the idea of Christmas I have always carried in my head. But I live in Australia, and my Christmas is very different. And even though that winter fantasy never truly goes away, I have realised there are things I do love about the season here. So come with me as I share about some of the things that make Christmas in Australia special to me. And no, it’s not the beach, or swimming, or spending the day at Bondi Beach. Haha, this non-beach lover has other favourites!

Christmas in Australia

Christmas in the Summer

It’s summer over here, yep, we have opposite seasons to most of the world, and I know it blows some people’s minds. While half the globe is bundling up in scarves and coats, we have our air conditioners on full blast. I have to be honest, I don’t love that Christmas is in the middle of summer. But I do love summer itself. Hello, long evenings, bright sunshine, and cold drinks. Yes sir, summer is my favourite season, and I’m lucky I can handle the heat pretty well. This afternoon, I walked home in mid-30ºC temperatures, and by the time I got home, I was a sweaty mess but a happy sweaty mess. I guess there’s a reason a friend used to call me Sahara. Christmas probably makes winter more fun, but I still love our quirky upside-down version. Quirky is good.

Double Christmas Fun

One of the things I love about this time of year is that I feel like I get two Christmases. At preschool, we’re wrapping up the school year and getting ready for the end-of-year concerts and graduation. Our school year ends in December and starts again in the last week of January. The kids are so excited (not always in the best way, yikes!), and there’s just this general buzz in the air. It also helps that I work with some of the most fun people on the planet. This time of year is definitely my favourite, and even though it’s chaos, it’s good fun chaos. Then, once school’s out (ten days to go but who’s counting?), we kick off round two of Christmas prep at home, making sure everything is ready for the “real” Christmas. Two Christmases in one. I love that.

Food

For Christmas lunch, it’s often the custom to go for food that suits the weather. Things like prawns, oysters, cold ham, turkey and salads.

I enjoy all of that, but I also love the traditional Christmas food like turkey, glazed ham (I have the most amazing glazed ham recipe), roast potatoes and gravy, always lots of gravy. So I do what a lot of people who celebrate Christmas in summer do and combine both. We start with seafood as an entrée and then tuck into the more traditional Christmas fare. It’s the best of both worlds!

Carols, Music and Summer Nights

One of the things I love about Christmas in Australia is Carols by Candlelight, like the one held in the Domain in Sydney (and similar events in other cities). I’ve never been to the Domain myself, but it’s televised, so I watch it every year while I’m wrapping presents. The audience is always in summer clothes, and there’s no snow, no frosty air, but it still looks very Christmassy to me.

Lights

We have pockets of streets where decorating houses with Christmas lights is a real thing. It kind of moves around from year to year, depending on how the decorating fever hits. You know how it goes: one house goes all out, then the next one gets inspired, and before you know it, the whole street becomes famous for it. Not everyone decorates their house, but those who do really go for it.

I don’t know if it’s the same overseas, maybe in the northern hemisphere it is, or maybe that’s just a Hallmark movie thing, you’ll have to let me know. The funny part is, because it’s summer, it doesn’t get dark until after 8 pm, so the lights can’t really shine until then. The news often runs a segment announcing the best streets to see, and suddenly everyone rushes over. I used to decorate our house, it was me and the neighbour across the street. Now it’s just the neighbour across the street. I got tired of untangling the lights and acting like a cranky Grinch. How do people even keep their lights tidy?

The Decorations That Never Match the Weather

I laugh on the inside when I stop and think about the mismatch of winter decorations in a hot climate. Snowflakes on windows. Reindeers in 30-degree heat. A fake fireplace on the TV while you’re sitting there in shorts. And then we have Christmas cards that try to represent us better, with Santa in shorts surfing. Too funny!

So that’s what I love about Christmas in Australia. It’s hot, sticky and sweaty, but a picture-perfect traditional winter white Christmas is only a long-haul 14 to 24-hour plane ride away, depending on your destination. Lucky us, right?