Christmas Down Under

Christmas Down Under seems to have all the glitter and tinsel of an American Christmas; Streets, shops and homes are full of decorations and plastic Christmas trees. Christmas lighting is taken to extraordinary lengths by some ordinary households, too. Christmas starts early like in Finland, and the closer it gets to Christmas the crazier the razzmatazz gets. Christmas in Australia is their summer holiday season and the hottest time of the year, so we're just dreaming of White Christmas here.

 

 

Christmas tree is picked up and decorated early, too. Australians are not very religious people, but some families do attend the midnight mass. However, more families go to Carols by Candlelight, an outside concert where people sit on blankets, light candles and sing carols. 

Carols by Candlelight

Christmas seems to be a big thing here as well and it is spent with family. Extended family. All the aunties and uncles and cousins and friends and everybody. Christmas Dinner is often a barbeque on the backyard. The big day here is Christmas Day instead of Christmas Eve, and presents are unwrapped on Christmas Day when the kids wake up at dawn.

 

The Christmas spit

The Christmas sales start on Boxing Day. Early in the morning there were massive lines outside Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Myer and such. I had no desire whatsoever to go shopping that day and fight with 100,000 other people over a pair of socks that's a little bit cheaper than normally or line hours to try on clothes. Crazy.

To me it didn’t really feel like Christmas this year with just +39 degrees on the eve of Christmas Eve. Although I enjoy the heat, I really missed snow and the darkness and the atmosphere of a REAL (Finnish) Christmas.

Tomorrow morning at 5 am we’re off to Sydney to spend New Years, a modest 10-hour-drive.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!