This will be our third summertime Christmas and I must say that I’m warming to it. I don’t know if it is having young kids to enjoy it with or whether the seasonal reversal removes the S.A.D. component of my typical holiday dread, but I find myself looking forward to Christmas this year. If you’ve known me for any period of time you will know just how surprising a sentiment this is for me.
Christmas in Australia is all ass backwards, it’s true. There’s the expectation of sitting down for a full roast dinner on a day that temperatures might reach 40°C. There’s all the same trappings of Christmas – plastic snowmen that nearly melt in the brutal Antipodean summer sun. But now that I’m beginning to get my head around it, I’m beginning to see the charm.
Christmas in Australia is days at the beach. It is barbecues on sweltering, sunny afternoons. It is long weekend days watching test cricket, listening for that distinctive sound of leather on wood that precedes the bails tumbling. Christmas down under is ice cream and mangoes and cherries and mince pies. Not all at once, of course. It is sunny days on Rundle Mall singing along to ‘Winter Wonderland’ or ‘White Christmas’ in shorts and sandals.It is hot, dry northerlies and ineffective air conditioning and sweating on the verandah with my feet in the kids’ paddling pool. It is splashing toddler boys hosing down the dog, each other and occasionally their mum.
Christmas in Australia is ass backwards. Absolutely. But it is also about redefining the holiday. It’s about new traditions for a new life. That is what I came here for and Christmas by Christmas it is what I’m getting.
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This track by Tony Dekker’s Great Lake Swimmers has become one of my favourite ‘alternative’ Christmas carols. This one and a handful of other great songs are from Great Lake Swimmers‘ “Hands in Dirty Ground” EP, which is available from 
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by courtney
05 Dec 2010 at 01:05
How lovely. I can imagine how hot weather at Christmastime would be strange for an American to get used to, but I’m glad you’ve warmed (har) to it. For me, Christmas is the one time of year I don’t mind the cold. But after it’s over, I’m ready for the weather to start warming up again.
courtney´s last blog ..Paranormal Psychology
by Agnes
05 Dec 2010 at 14:09
No, no, no, you’re doing it wrong! On Christmas Day it’s all about the barbeque! Sausages, chops, cold ham and salad, all washed down with icy cold beer and finished off with lemon meringue pie, chocolate ripple cake and pav.
THAT is a real Aussie Christmas!
by arizaphale
05 Dec 2010 at 18:26
I am so glad you are writing again. Just when I was starting to long for a UK Christmas you have reminded me of my childhood and the many marvellous Christmases spent in furnace like Adelaide heat. I can’t believe though, that you are actually looking forward to the dreaded season? Mayhap like the Grinch your heart hath grown a few sizes???
PS: Are you guys saving the tree til your move?
PPS: (Tell me about those photos….what processing did you use? The halo works especially well in the last one.)
arizaphale´s last blog ..Its Managing Director or Nothing!
by A Free Man
06 Dec 2010 at 08:50
Courtney – It takes some getting used to, but another one of the good things is that you have days off in the summertime when you actually want them.
Agnes – I know, but try convincing my Irish in-laws to change the typical northern hemisphere Christmas dinner. Don’t you worry, though, I’ll be working on my kids.
Carolyn – The photos are done by this nifty ‘old photos’ app on my new iPhone. Fancy, eh?
A Free Man´s last blog ..Find the heat over a bay or in the scraps of someone’s plate
by kitty
06 Dec 2010 at 18:48
Chris, I’m glad to see you writing again – but you, my friend are a freak. This weather is intollerable. The ashes are all but on their way to blighty and I wish I were going with them for some decent weather!
kitty´s last blog ..life is pretty good
by Courtney
07 Dec 2010 at 00:21
It sounds perfect to me, but perhaps that is because my holiday season isn’t off to the best start and I’m a bit bah, humbug today. Right now I would happily hop a plane and head foward an Australian Christmas – the beach part sounds especially wonderful.
by mondraussie
07 Dec 2010 at 06:30
Bugger… just posted a comment that has been gobbled (probably by the christmas turkey)… Now I can’t remember what I said… something about embracing the contradictions of stinking hot day with inherited northern hemisphere traditions… very meaningful and all that! You’re making me homesick, but this time I don’t care, going home for xmas for the first time in 7 years!!
mondraussie´s last blog ..semi anonymous
by Seattledad (Luke, I am Your Father)
07 Dec 2010 at 14:27
I think we could all use some redefinition every now and then. Sounds great. Enjoy your beachy days. Not too many of those here now.
Seattledad (Luke, I am Your Father)´s last blog ..File Under- But Thats Just Me
by muskrat
08 Dec 2010 at 12:34
Does this mean you’ll carve the roast beast?
muskrat´s last blog ..a lesson
by rassles
08 Dec 2010 at 15:23
So Christmas in Australia is the fourth of July?
rassles´s last blog ..Impound
by mickey
11 Dec 2010 at 15:01
Sounds nice and all, but then I remember how much I hate summertime heat. Then again, I suppose I could adjust by simply trading some of the traditions of the Fourth of July for Christmas and calling it good. You know, open presents in the morning and then go for a swim and grill some hotdogs. Yeah, I guess that could be alright.
mickey´s last blog ..Why Haven’t the Ad People At DayQuil Jumped On This
by Blogging Mama Andrea
11 Dec 2010 at 23:03
First, I love the Boom shirt. That’s perfect, I’m pretty sure I need one in my size. We are doing the debate about where we want to move next summer. It’s down to cold, awesome Chicago or sunny, easy-does-it San Francisco. While I would love the warm of SF about now (it’s 26 degrees here today) I don’t know that I could do Christmas with warm temperatures. It somehow just seems wrong.
I’m sure I’d get used to it eventually though…
Blogging Mama Andrea´s last blog ..The generosity of others
by Ginny
14 Dec 2010 at 14:49
You know how I decided to not hate Christmas anymore? Yeah, I think this might have been ground zero for that. I love this post.
by Jessica K
18 Dec 2010 at 01:25
Aw, I’m so glad you are de-grinching these days! Kids will do strange things to us, won’t they!
I find it strange that the Southern Hemisphere hasn’t made their own version of Christmas themes, though. Snowmen in summer & “White Christmas” seem pretty odd considering the circumstances!
On a side note, do you have the Mem Fox book, “Wombat Divine” for your boys? My guys love that one, especially my sad version of an Aussie accent!