As a child who grew up in Australia, I could never understand why Santa Claus wore such warm clothes at Christmas time; or why Christmas cards always had pictures of snow and Santa climbing down a chimney. My Christmases were the opposite of that. Christmas is in summertime in Australia. It is always REALLY hot and humid with no snow, and the majority of houses don’t have a chimney.

Christmas is very different in Australia.

Let me tell you how many families, including mine, celebrate Christmas.

I think it is important that I tell you that my family is not religious, so we don’t attend any church services. However, many Australians do. There are many church services on Christmas Eve at midnight all over Australia. In addition, because Christmas (25^th December) and Boxing Day (26^th December) are public holidays, many families will go camping or travel to stay with other family members to celebrate.

Ok, let’s start. Firstly, most Australians don’t do anything on Christmas Eve (24^th of December). In fact, most parents send their children to bed early telling them that if they don’t go to sleep, Santa Claus won’t be able to deliver their presents. Before going to bed, they put out a snack for Santa to eat and drink, and if they are really kind, they will leave a carrot for the reindeers. Once the children are in bed, parents put the Christmas presents from Santa under the Christmas tree ready for tomorrow when everyone wakes up. They also drink and eat the snacks.

On Christmas Day (25^th December), everybody wakes up really early. In my family, this can be any time after 5:30am. We rush to the Christmas tree and have to wait for everyone to get there before we open all of the presents. Opening the presents is chaotic with a lot of noise.

Some families will have a special breakfast, however, for most families, lunch is the most important meal of the day.

Christmas lunch is always with family. Sometimes, it can be just the immediate family of parents and children, or sometimes extended family may also come. This could include aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and close family friends.

There is a lot of food and nearly all of it is cold. We eat many different types of salad, including potato salad, coleslaw, pasta salad, green tossed salad, and fruit. For meat, we eat cold ham, cold chicken, cold sliced roast pork or lamb, and cold prawns. For dessert, there is trifle, pavlova, and Christmas pudding with custard. People usually drink beer, wine or soft drinks.

After lunch, everyone is tired because we ate so much and because it is so hot. So, if you are lucky, you will go for a swim somewhere or just stay home and enjoy the air conditioning.

In the evening, everyone is exhausted, so we eat ‘leftovers’ from lunch and all go to bed early.

On Boxing Day (26^th December), we relax and continue to eat the remaining Christmas food. Many businesses have Boxing Day Sales so many people will go shopping. We also take down our Christmas decorations, and then we start planning our New Year’s Eve! If you’d like to read about the Australian traditions for that, click here.

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!