Not much left of the year now. Christmas has come and gone and forgotten for another year.Next Friday is New Years day and the last year of the first decade of the new century will be with us.So I thought I’d talk about the difference between the standard northern white Christmas and the real Christmas that we celebrate here in Oz.
Who wants to be stuck inside when there is a festival on?????
This year was a little colder than usual. In fact it was the coldest Christmas Day for many years. That’s because a cyclone (hurricane, typhoon depending on where you live) that came across the north western top of Australia from the Indian Ocean, turned into a rain depression and moved down across Australia and, at the moment, is sitting across the south eastern corner and bringing much needed heavy rain to this area. The rain started on Christmas day after lunch. The day was cloudy and cool with strong sea winds.
It even brought heavy rain to the Red Centre. Uluru (Eyre’s Rock) even had waterfall running off it. The North West is expecting floods, much to the delight of the farmers because of lack of rain lately.
But we were still able to have a lovely B-B-Q lunch with some friends who just happen to be from Weifang and then go for a walk around the sea side rocks.
And so a description of a usual Ozzie Christmas for you.
Like most places around the world, Christmas shopping really starts the week before and builds to a crescendo on Chrissy Eve. The stores and malls get more crowded and noisier each day up to the final night.
Many good Christians will go to Church for special services on Christmas Eve but the clothing will be a little lighter than where many of you live.
Most large companies will cease work at lunch time and stay closed until the week after New Year. Schools generally will have closed around a week before and will re-open at the end of January.
Christmas day for people with young families will be no different from any where in the world. Kids will be up at the crack of dawn to rip open the presents and have fun playing with the boxes.
But that will be the end to similarities to the northern hemisphere.
Once the family formalities are over, it’s time to prepare for the rest of the day. This will usually take two main forms, both happening around an outside lunch.
It will be a): at a beach or park or b): at a designated relative or friends’ house. Typically it will start about 11am and friends and family will start arriving at the decided location.
A gas barbeque has become the centre piece of the Ozzie outdoors and many parks and picnic areas are now equipped with free gas or electric barbeques. Open fire barbeques are now banned almost every where in Australia due to the risk of bush fires.
And so gifts will be exchanged and let the festivities begin.
The barby will be fired up and covered with steaks, lamb chops and sea foods and anything else that can be cooked. Salads will have been prepared before hand with potato salads and other old family specialties and favourites.
And it’s lunch. Perhaps around 1 o’clock and the meat will be hot and ready to go. There will be cold meats as well (Deli meats for those in the States).
And of course there will be beer for those who want it. Cool and crisp. Or perhaps a good Ozzie wine, red or white. Either way it will be the best wine in the world, as everybody knows. Forget French or German. Whether it be Hunter Valley, Barossa or Victorian, you can believe it will be a good drop.
It won’t be long before the kids have had enough and want to off playing with the new toys or a friendly game of cricket until the adults decide to show the youngsters how to really play the game!!! (Yeah, right).
If the Barbie is on the beach or if the host home is near the beach, a squad of the party goers will head off for a plunge in the surf, littlies supervised by an adult or older teenagers.
Lunch will drift on into the afternoon. The wine glasses will be swapped for cups of tea or coffee with cake or a prepared dessert.
Some will leave to visit others but some will remain as the afternoon turns into evening. Picked over leftovers will be the low key dinner inside and a movie or the television will complete the day for the stayers. As daylight savings is in force in much of Australia, it will still be light until at least 7.30pm.
The next day in most countries that have a British background is also a public holiday known as Boxing Day.
This is a tradition handed down from England where the Families shared gifts on Christmas Day and then, on the next day, they would give gifts to those less fortunate than themselves. Eventually it became a gazetted Public Holiday.
In Australia today it has become legendary as the day for SALES and SAILS. It is the chance to snap up a bargain as all the major department stores have major sales to move left over and one-off items. Televisions, refrigerators and other electrical items can be reduced by as much as 70%. No rain cheques and first come, first served. Clothing and many other items are usually included.
And the other SAIL?? It is the start of one of the world’s ocean classic yacht races. It has become the big one with maxi-yachts from many countries competing. This is not a little harbour race but an open ocean race from Sydney Harbour, down the East Coast of Australia and across Bass Strait to Hobart, the capitol of our island state Tasmania.
Yachts are at the mercy of all the elements that nature can throw at them. It can be favourable north easterlies which carry the yachts along with a tail wind. Or the feared southerly can come upon them with howling gales and waves up to three metres high pounding them.
A great competition that has unfortunately claimed a few lives in its history. But it is still the race for real sailors and hardy boats and none of them would change anything. Some years ago, safety rules were tightened to ensure all boats are fitted with the correct safety gear and communications equipment.
Some years earlier, a particularly bad storm claimed many lives as many of the older boats didn’t have radios so the race coordinators couldn’t contact them to warn them of the storm. It’s very different today.
Bass Strait is very dangerous as currents and winds surge around the bottom of Australia where the Indian, Southern and Pacific/Tasman Ocean all merge.
Not a race for the faint of heart or weekend warriors.
And of course, there is the Cricket. The Boxing Day Test Match. The pure sport. A five day contest between two International teams and ,,,,,, well, those who know will understand and those who don’t will never work it out. Poor people!!
So while you northerners are digging out your driveways just to get to the letter box, we are sitting here in shorts, sandals and t-shirts, sipping beer, coffee or tea under the gazebo and listening to the birds chirping.
And, strangely enough, much won’t change when winter comes. Eat you heart out.
Cheers!!
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