There, finally got around to it. I was just musing on how it must be to have holidays in the summer break, that most of us are harping on about the cold weather up here, and down there, Christmas is what? I mean, there's no frost nipping your nose and eyelashes, so it's the dead heat of the summer, how does it feel?

It is all rather strange.. most of the Christmas cards have a snow/cold/ice theme, which is totally ludicrous!

An Aussie Christmas is usually spent within a short distance of a swimming pool and/or a beer fridge.

We do not skate or ski- we play cricket, or we lounge in aforementioned pool...

I have only ever seen snow twice in my life, and had to drive five hours to do that.. I would LOVE a white Christmas, but unless we get an extraordinary change in weather, it will never happen...

Just a quick example- I work outside a factory, and a truck driver measured the temp as 42C in the shade, and 60C in direct sunlight. That equates to 140F, so I think the chances of a White Christmas are rather remote!

THat's the sort of thing I was thinking...so I mean, the Christmas spirit type thing for you, is cooling off, and all those heavy wintertime specialities aren't really what you feel like eating in that weather.
Are there any sorts of speciatlies that you eat instead? I mean if I were down under I'd be eating peaches...
Berries..I mean, you can't make plum pudding down there..

You sure can make plum pudding.... that's the other strange thing, is that even though many of us have grown up with a hot Christmas - for generations - we still try and hang on to traditions that our ancestors brought from Europe. My family still has a hot Christmas pudding, and we cool off in the swimming pool for the rest of the day.
When I lived in Connecticut, I found Summer very strange with no Christmas. As soon as the weather became warm, I started thinking "Oh, I must start my Christmas shopping!".
In my family, we have mangoes and cherries for breakfast (cherries are definitely a Christmas food), a big lunch which is slowly mutating over the years to include seafood and cold meats rather than roast turkey, and then salads and cold food for dinner. I think cherries are probably the biggest Christmassy food for me.

Sliced ham, on the bone, with lots of hot English mustard- yummy! Nothing like it for building up a thirst...

Salads, cold desserts, et al are usually left on the table all afternoon, and there is rarely enough room to fit dinner in, after 'grazing' all day.

It must be odd to listen to the Christmas carols then (All the winter wonderlands and snowmen and such).

I suppose it is all a matter of what you have grown up with, but I couldn't imagine a hot Christmas. I don't even care for the rare Christmases that are somewhat warm here. It just doesn't feel right to me. I couldn't imagine the Christmas season without sweaters and hot cocoa and all.

I'm with Ozzz, I'd LOVE a white Christmas too.
I spend 2 days cooking the Christmas lunch, it's ALWAYS the traditional roast turkey, pork and ham, served with baked potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato, 2 veg.(whatever's seasonal)
plus gravy,cranberry sauce and apple sauce. My family would revolt if they didn't get it.
Dessert is Christmas pudding with brandy custard and/or trifle.
Then comes the afternoon laze-around or games with the children.
Dinner is usually just salad with cold meats then more trifle, mince pies and Christmas cake!

One of these years I may get out of the hot kitchen and eat out for Christmas what bliss!!

This is great, as I was thinking about my own Christmas celebration, the first time away from my family, far away in the Islands. I mean, it was odd for the weather to be sunny and tropical outside, with a bit of rain however as Hawaii isn't the Southern Hemisphere. And they used gorgeous Norfolk Pine trees, and we wore our good muumuus and wore the special leis, silvery leaves and pikake flowers.
The Hawaiians really really love parties too...they always say, "Haole parties, you get chip and dip...(said with disdain) Local parties, we eat." And you'd get invited to these massive parties with roast pig, a turkey done in a rock pit, and other specialities.

By the way, we really do wear muumuus over there, the missionaries introduced these to make the polynesian women decently covered, and the ladies took on this custom and made it their own. On Fridays you wear it anyway, but they aren't as bright as the ones the tourists wear. I had about five, really pretty too.
I sure wish that the tourists would see that half of the stuff they show you is closer to Tahitian dancing than the real Hawaiian stuff!
When I was working in a pizza parlor about two weeks after I got there, the big guys there would just break into song some days, and you'd have this really big guy dancing in the kitchen...there's when you see it's in their culture, firmly engrained...
Christmas time, well you just the shops are all lit up like in the colder climes...but it's warm.

I once knew an Aussie in the UK, who missed the summer celebration so much, that he threw a party for people called Christmas in July! Tree and all.

Plum pudding then a swim? Don't you just sink to the bottom?

We're having a little pre Christmas springlike weather today, but it was nowhere as hot as I am sure the southern hemisphere has. At the moment we are having thunderstorms - with the possibility of a tornado watch before the night is up. However, they are calling for a possibility of snow by the weekend. I sure hope so, because I really want a white Christmas...

Funny, I was just thinking about this today. I saw a Santa Photo thingy and the backdrop was the Aussie bush. It looked excellent. Greens and browns and gum leaves. A lot of others show white, snowy backgrounds, which I always thought inappropriate for 35-degree heat climate. We’re getting away from the traditional winter Xmas paraphernalia finally and I’ve seen some Santa’s walking the streets in red singlets, red shorts and thongs. Much more appropriate clothing. Having a white Xmas is always something I’d love to experience though.

We share Xmas duties here in Queensland. This year I play host in what the family calls the orphans Xmas. We take in anyone we know that doesn’t have immediate family here. The job of the host means that all I have to do is mow the lawn and buy the cold ham and prawns. Everyone else will bring salads and fruit. Cold meats and season stone fruits like plums and mangos, oh.. and lots of icy cold beer. We open the presents after lunch, normally after 2pm. Someone plays Santa and hands them out one at a time. By 4pm it’s power nap time to recharge the batteries for a night session.

We normally set up lots of shade cloths and fill a few inflatable kiddy pools with water, sit around them with our feet in to keep cool, occasionally throwing in blocks of ice to keep it cooler. Like Ozz, cricket is always on the menu at some point on the other side of the continent.

I had a white Christmas once in Scotland about 10 years ago ... and for those of you wishing for one, well, it was really cold!!!! But with this year looking like it's going to be a scorcher (high 40's already ugh) i'd gladly go back to it!

Thanks for everyone's contribution, as I guess I'd felt what it was like not to be cold three times in my life...so thought I'd ask you what it was like down under...

We'll be back on track, temperature wise, tomorrow, and the weather report for Christmas day is SNOW !!!

I hope everyone in the warmer climates will be able to keep cool during all the festivities!

My friend sent me a photo of King's Park (Perth) with the Christmas lights illuminating the (I don't know) GUM trees or something, and it looked spooky and stark and bare!

In my patch of northern Canada, the el nino has left us with no snow! We usually have FEET(metres) of the stuff by now! It has turned cold (-5c) the last two days, but still no snow! Most strange!

I can't imagine Christmas, though I've tried, without COLD, at least! 40c and Christmas carols and heavy meals just don't quite get there for me! I find this whole thread fascinating!

Lea, I supposed it is what we are all used to. I cannot imagine a Christmas Day with lower than 30C (85F)... I also cannot imagine a temp of -5! It is not common here to get below zero, even in mid-winter.

The food we eat is not 'heavy', but it is usually cold; who wants hot stuff when it is so hot outside?

Not sure what the trees are in King's Park- I have never been to Perth (New Zealand is closer, ), but it would not surprise me if they were some type of gum tree- any Sandgropers here to confirm that?

I think I visited it as I recall some cockatoos and a kookaburra flying around...only had a 110 then, my photos were awful.

In Hawaii, we had a lovely lunch out on the beach one year for Christmas.

Reading the posts it's hard to pick a winning climate. A cold chrissy or a hot one.. I guess being bloody hot we southern hemisphere peeps envy you folks that can play in the snow and stomach a hot roast, but maybe you envy the fact we get a suntan on Xmas day and love a refreshing cold beer. The tradition remains constent, family, friends, good will and a years supply of hankies and undies.....

My post would have been the same word-for-word as BlinkyBill's.

However one year there was just the two of us and we decided not to do the turkey full on, but just a roast pork and crackling.
Bad move! We had just been to see 'Babe' the day before.

Does anyone perchance remember the words to the comic song Christmas in Australia?

I found it very funny but can only remember a few lines:

"Christmas in Australia is basically bl***y nice ......
... if its Christmas and you haven't got a suntan your a pommy and you ain't no use ...."

Regards,


Tielhard

No "Christmas in Australia" yet. But I did come across this one!
The Song
Dashing through the bush,
in a rusty Holden Ute,
Kicking up the dust,
esky in the boot,
Kelpie by my side,
singing Christmas songs,
It's Summer time and I am in
my singlet, shorts and thongs

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Engine's getting hot;
we dodge the kangaroos,
The swaggie climbs aboard,
he is welcome too.
All the family's there,
sitting by the pool,
Christmas Day the Aussie way,
by the barbecue.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

Come the afternoon,
Grandpa has a doze,
The kids and Uncle Bruce,
are swimming in their clothes .
The time comes 'round to go,
we take the family snap,
Pack the car and all shoot through,
before the washing up.

Oh! Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way,
Christmas in Australia
on a scorching summers day, Hey!
Jingle bells, jingle bells, Christmas time is beaut!,
Oh what fun it is to ride in a rusty Holden Ute.

hehe, nice find Lea! our local radio station's audience who are the type to drive holden utes and that song is being played over and over and over!

Any Australians remember the John Williamson one about getting the family picture at Christmas?

I learned what a Holden ute was here at FT and managing the car section in quizzyland.

It's really fun finding out how it is on the other side of the world...you know my kids have had a lot of white Christmas times? I'm counting...they were living in a snowy place quite a few times...it's a royal pain in the...well you know.
Let's see the little one was in Pennsylvania and we had a major winter there, they even made t shirts for it, we were probably on a plane as usual.
So that means we had quite a few snowed in times when they were small, whereas in California when it snows three flakes we all go out and yell for more. I mean in the central valley area.
Otherwise, the parents usually kick us out of the house with our new toys to go try them out. We'll even get to throw our coats off some years.
Otherwise in Sacramento, we have fog.

Hey Jilly, how's the little one's first Christmas shaping up?
Conor, hope you left out some carrots for the reindeer.

Sue, you would be surprised how often that one, seemingly innocent, word gets us Aussies in trouble

My guess is the thongs mentioned are the feet kind (the rubber beach shoes), but when I first read it, I thought there were some really bold Santas walking around!

I still have no clue what a Holden ute is.

Or singlets......