7 Aussie Christmas traditions we all love
1. Surfing Santa
Traditional Santas wear bright red fleecy suits, lined with white fur and big black boots to fight off the northern winter.
In Australia, it’s summer at Christmas time so you’re much more likely to see a boardshort wearing Santa on a surfboard. It’s not an official tradition by any means but if you find yourself on a beach on Christmas day, you’ll probably catch an early morning surfer in a Santa hat.
2. Eating prawns
While our British and American friends are feasting on roast turkey, baked potato and hot chocolate, us Aussies are packing up the Esky for a picnic or setting up folding tables to eat outside. Most families in Australia will send someone to do a ‘prawn run’ in the morning.
This is where you get up super early and get to the local markets to buy the freshest and biggest prawns for Christmas day.
Most seafood stores will be packed on Christmas morning with grumpy parents or bored teenagers who have been sent on the prawn run. It’s such a special time of year.
3. Street parties
It’s summer in December in Australia so street parties are very popular. Sometimes in the evening on Christmas Day, impromptu street parties happen. Most people visit relatives on Christmas Day so the streets are full of families and kids.
Quiet roads on Christmas Day also usually mean impromptu games of cricket, with the wheelie bin as stumps of course.
4. Boxing Day BBQs
Once the family get togethers are done, people usually gather at friends’ houses on Boxing Day to watch (or not watch) the Boxing Day Test. This event usually involves one group of people drinking beer with their eyes glued to the cricket and another group of people drinking beer and not watching the cricket.
The tradition of the Boxing Day Test is to either organise your entire day around the match, or completely ignore it.
The same goes for Boxing Day sales and battling the crowds to squeeze in just that little bit more shopping before the New Year.
5.Festive road trips
Depending on where your family lives, Christmas Day may involve a long road trip. It’s an accidental tradition at best but lots of Aussie families’ Christmas celebrations include a drive in a hot car, with kids in the back seat.
Lots of Australian children spend many hours squished in back seats with piles of pillows, siblings, presents, the Esky and a basket of food around the Christmas holidays.
6. Carols by candlelight
Most cities in Australia host their own Carols by Candlelight and there will usually be a few celebrity performers. Proceeds from the performance are usually donated to a charity.
There’s often a main Carols By Candlelight performed in a major city but other cities will often host their own events too. Families pack picnics, blankets and mosquito spray and spend the evening outdoors listening to music.
7. Christmas lunch
If we believe everything we see on TV, it would appear that most Christmas meals happen at dinner time. Not in Australia – we’re mostly Christmas lunch people.
Unless you have to spend Christmas with more than one family in which case you’re likely to have Christmas breakfast, lunch and dinner. Christmas is all day affair in Australia with lots of eating.
Source: www.realestate.com.au