Australia (Merry Christmas!):
Naturally, Santa Claus arrives on a surf rescue boat in Queensland, because he visits in high summer. Australians surround themselves with Christmas bush, a native plant that has little red flowers; some use gum-tree branches for decoration, rather than evergreens.
In Melbourne, tens of thousands of people gather each Christmas Eve for Carols by Candlelight, a tradition since the early 20th century, which has caught on in other Australian cities.
Christmas in Australia is always about 30° Celsius which is a rather hot day. Most Australian families go away and spend their holidays in a resort or on the beach. Swimming is always popular.
Unlike in New York, people walk around in shorts and T-shirts and still get sweltering hot. Everyone invites their friends and grandparents over for salad with cold meats, or a picnic, or even a barbecue. Nobody has anything like a roast dinner or a turkey.
When kids wake up in the morning, they hurriedly toss off their sheet and race towards the plastic Christmas tree. The presents are piled up under it. When the time comes to open the presents the kids tear off the paper. When all of this is over they go outside and have a game of Cricket or go to the beach for a swim.
In poorer areas of Australia, kids expect two or three presents but some get many.
Families sometimes venture north or go overseas for Christmas but most stay in Australia and relax in the floods of glorious sunshine.
In Queensland, the beaches are incredibly popular, especially down at the Gold Coast.
The food is never hot, and many go out for dinner instead of having a heavy lunch. Many people go to church as well to celebrate and pray.
The next big holiday is the day after, Boxing Day. I'm not sure if you have a similar day in America, but in Australia this is like a day for cleaning up. Everyone helps out to clear the paper and to store it for next year, and the tree is also disassembled.
Christmas is the most exciting time of the year. The school kids get six weeks off and all the shops close on Christmas day and Boxing Day. December is one of the hottest months of the year so many people need air conditioning in their house. Sometimes it can get so hot and sticky that you can't stay outside for more than an hour.
Compared to New York, our ways and traditions may be different but we all celebrate Christmas for the same cause.
Forget the snow, forget the sleighs.
It's never a white Christmas in Australia where Christmas Day occurs in the first month of the southern summer. Unless of course, you are at the top of Mt Kosciuszko where you still might find some unmelted snow.
Christmas in Australia, you may as well forget the turkey, too, although quite a large number of Aussies cling to the English tradition of a Christmas roast dinner. And yes, it's quite anachronistic to have cold-weather fare on a summer's day.
The trend for Christmas in Australia has been toward seafood - prawns, lobsters, crabs, mussels, scallops, pippies, Balmain bugs - and cold salad as Christmas fare. And lots of fine Australian wine and robust Australian beer.
So, for Christmas in Australia, we have Santa Claus (sweltering in his heavy suit), Christmas cards (some depicting snow and, yes, sleighs and reindeer, too), Christmas carols, heavy shopping and Christmas gift-giving.
Outdoor activities
Because it's summer, many Christmas in Australia celebrations occur outdoors, with steaks and prawns on the barbie, and beer drunk out of bottles.
In the evening, there could be Carols by Candlelight, the big ones being at the Domain in Sydney and at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. Smaller cities, and towns, and villages and suburbs, too, may have their own Carols by Candlelight versions.
Church services
For the religious there's Midnight Mass and Christmas Day services.
And there's always the beach. And because it's summer, there'll be people celebrating Christmas in Australia on the beach when the weather's fine.
And before you know it, it's Boxing Day.
Until next time, HB
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