Christmas in Australia…

The other day I was in the grocery store and I saw a big banner with an image of sliced, juicy mangos. In red Christmassy writing the banner said ‘The Taste of Christmas’. I had to stop myself from giggling. Having spent all of my life in the northern hemisphere, the taste of Christmas is sugar cookies, and gingerbread, roast turkey and cranberry sauce. Not mangos or prawns or cold salads. But alas… it is sunny and hot, and I’ve never been one to complain about that. Not even at Christmas time. Also, we all really love mangos and they’re so good at this time of year.

While it feels slightly odd to hang wool Christmas stockings and snowflake decorations, and while the majority of our Christmas music doesn’t apply to this sunny climate (no white Christmases or sleigh rides), and while it’s really too hot to bake cookies… I feel obliged to cling to the traditions of my childhood. So we try.

We hung up our Advent calendar on December 1st, filled with tiny little goodies and treats. I gathered all of our Christmas books and stacked them up for the kids to read. We don’t have a fireplace, so we hung our stockings in the doorway — all seven of them! I ordered my Christmas crackers from Hedgehog Shop like I do every year. And I even bought a Panetone, which came all the way from Italy! Some traditions can’t be broken.

I thought I’d share some festive scenes from around our home to give you a glimpse of our Australian Christmas…

• Our stockings are from Sundance Catalog — hand knit by artisans in Bosnia. I ordered Wilkie’s stocking a couple months ago and it makes a perfect addition.
• Our Advent Calendar is an old one by Maileg (I’m not sure if it’s available anymore). I saw some cute ones at the Scandi Mini booth at the ShopUp in London if you’re looking for something similar.
• The red and white gingham Christmas crackers are from Hedgehog Shop
• The wooden christmas tree decoration is an old one from Muji, which we’ve had for nearly 10 years now (Esther and I bought them together in London!).
• My mom bought us our wooden Christmas pyramid in Austria several years ago. You can find similar ones online here. (We have realised that it doesn’t work here in humid Australia because the heat from the candles doesn’t make the top spin — I guess you need a colder room for that to work. Also, our candles are melting and starting to tilt!)
• Here’s a post with many of our family’s favourite Christmas books as well as our Team’s Favourite Christmas books.

I’m so looking forward to slow, sunny Christmas days ahead with my family. I hope you all have a restful, joyful, merry holiday season wherever in the world you are.

Courtney x

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