By Lee Tulloch
Surfers wearing Santa hats as they surf at Bondi Beach on December 25, 2016 in Sydney.Credit: Getty Images
I've always thought it was a bit unfortunate that Australians celebrated Christmas (and this year, Hanukkah as well) at the same time as our summer holidays.
In the northern hemisphere, the festivities of Christmas come at a time of year when a bit of cheer is much-needed, when the weather turns bleak and the long winter is ahead.
Down south, everything is compressed – Christmas, New Year's Eve and the big annual family road trip. All that food preparation, all that present shopping and wrapping, the cocktail events and neighbourhood barbecues, are mixed up with end of year school concerts, office parties and the inexplicable mad dash to "catch up" with people one hasn't seen all year before cities are emptied for the holidays.
But now that we're in January and most of us are flopping under beach umbrellas on one of a thousand beautiful beaches (slip, slap and slopping I hope), it is very, very easy to believe there's no place on earth that does the holiday season so well as Australia.
I live in a small beach community where the local firies bring Santa around on their red fire truck each Christmas morning, engaging in a friendly a waterbomb fight with the local kids. They've been doing this for decades.
Visit any beach this time of the year and you'll find Australian-style Christmas traditions like these. Picnic tables are manned from daybreak by designated best-spot-nabbers who hold down the fluttering plastic Christmas tablecloths with shells. Surfers ride boards in Santa hats and pooches look embarrassed as they trot along the shore in plush reindeer antlers. Boxing Day is celebrated with leftover ham and mince pie ice-cream – sometimes served with a good sprinkling of sand.
There is something truly wonderful about our mad mash-up of northern Christmas traditions and I wouldn't miss it for quids, as they used to say.
Yes, there's a downside – Australia does Christmas decorations badly. Sad banners or half-hearted bits of tinsel flap from city lamp posts. Let's get Christmas over and get on with summer, it all seems to say.
So I do miss the authentically Christmassy Christmas, with chunky fir trees, Santa Claus snowmen, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, mulled wine, Santa's helpers ringing bells in the streets, snug in their heavy velvets and fake furs, ice-skating, wreaths made of real holly, spectacular store windows, tobogganing and a coating of snow.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, I made a sudden trip to New York, for reasons that had nothing to do with the season. The upside was that I indulged in many of the Christmassy things I missed in Australia – the Rockefeller Center ice-skaters, the extravagant department store decorations – while allowing myself time to get home for Aussie Christmas.
Every single inch of New York, it seemed, was covered in sparkling lights. Christmas tree vendors lined the streets, enveloping passers-by in the beautiful scent of fir resin. There were carollers, a Christmas market at Union Square and even a flurry of snow. I did all my Christmas shopping in the dazzling temples of consumerism, with so many more gift options, more bargains, than at home. It was like being in Miracle on 34th Street, the 1947 version, with Jingle Bell Rock as the soundtrack.
I've always thought of this as a difficult time of year to travel, but I managed to cash in my frequent flyer points at a few weeks' notice, as long as I booked a flight back before the middle of December.
I've noticed, anecdotally, that an increased number of Australians did the same this year, heading to London or elsewhere in Europe or to New York to feast, shop and get a taste of some classic holiday season events we don't have at home, such as a British Christmas pantomime or a show with the high-kicking Rockettes, before returning home in time for a sweltering Christmas Day.
European river cruises that stop at Christmas markets have become massively popular in recent years, not just for shopping opportunities but because it's an instant blast of Christmas, without having to do all the preparation.
Then you can come home and do Christmas our way. It's a smart strategy to have both worlds.
The best thing about spending Christmas Day in Australia? After the mince pies have been devoured and the paper has been folded and put away for recycling next Christmas, we get to keep summer.
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