Cultural Conversations: Christmas 2023
We love Christmas.
We come from a long line of Christmas lovers. At the first glimpse of fairy lights, preparations and Christmas playlists begin. I’m not sure that I can talk of the ‘typical Australian’ Christmas as almost all Australian celebrations are a hybrid fusion of food and traditions from all over the world – at our best, we embrace a bit of everything.
Peter is English, his mother is Danish, and I am from Australia. We have lived away from home for 23 years, and favourite traditions have become even more special and significant in homes far away from home.
We start in November by making my mum’s Christmas recipes of fruit mince and stirring up Christmas puddings. Advent candles are lit each night in December, often sent from Denmark; gingerbread houses are decorated by parties of kids, and we take evening walks to see the Christmas lights on the streets and in the windows.
Growing up in Australia, it was the end of the school year, our long summer holidays, and it was always HOT at Christmas time – and I had never even considered it another way – despite shopping malls being decorated with snowflakes and fake snow, I loved it all the same.
The first hint of Christmas in Sydney was always the arrival of the pinky-red Christmas bush in gardens and grocers and the heady smell of gardenias and boxes and boxes of mangos everywhere; as the days got longer – Christmas for Peter – and my kids in Hong Kong was the arrival of fir trees that we’d all go to choose together, the fabulous lighting displays in the city, and a chill in the air as the days got shorter.
We often go back to Australia to family, and like many Australians and certainly many expats, our Christmas is a tapestry of traditions that have become our own. On Christmas Eve, we’ll go to church if we can find a not-too-stuffy service. When we were growing up, there was always one with tons of kids dressed as shepherds (or sheep) and angels with lop-sided wings sitting around the altar …I still weep through all the Christmas carols, much to my family’s amusement.
In Peter’s family, they have always celebrated in Danish tradition with a big dressed up candlelit roast dinner on Christmas Eve and midnight present opening in front of the fire – though in our version, there’s no fire and it usually ends in mad last minute wrapping and prepping for the next day.
As the years go on, we are not quite up at dawn anymore, and present giving is now at a more user-friendly hour. Some of my family are early birds and start the day at the beach for a swim; it’s always very festive at the beach on Christmas morning in Sydney, with excited kids swimming off sugar for breakfast or testing out their new surfboards… and backpackers getting their spots early for a big day ahead.
Like many Australians my family gather for a sunburnt, late and long lunch. There’s always tons of us – family and families in law, assorted friends and now boyfriends, anyone ‘orphaned’ at Christmas and all ‘ring-ins’ are welcome, a tradition my mother has set for as long as I can remember – and there is always plenty.
Of course, there is always a glass raised and a moment taken to celebrate someone missing …this year, my brother-in-law is coming back for a brief reprieve from UNICEF work in Gaza, which will bring salient reminders to us all of just how very lucky we are.
We are a family of creatives and foodies; we all delight in cooking for each other, and we all bring our traditional and delicious favourites to the table. There are always handmade decorations, crackers and crowns, and we celebrate with too much food – the freshest seafood, Glazed Ham and Turkey (often perfected in the BBQ) – an array of fantastic salads – and desserts for days, my mums Plum Pudding, Pavlova, and the favourite Buche Noel otherwise known as ‘the chocky log’) with a hidden jelly snake inside for New Year's luck! Then there’s swimming, a game of footy, or cricket and a doze for some…
As evening falls, there is a familiar smell of Star Jasmine, Eucalyptus, and sea salt in the air, and the gardens sound like magpies and tired, happy children. For the first time last year, the older cousins started mixing cocktails as the day went on into night …(perhaps traditions are still being made!).
And then it's a week of festivities ahead and fireworks on New Year’s Eve on Sydney Harbour, where we welcome in the New Year while our friends all over the world are still asleep – our hearts stretched wide across continents thinking of all those we love.
By January 1st, we all fall over.
This year, with IB and GSCE mocks looming in January, we will be the ones ‘missing’ from the Australian table, but we will squeeze in as much as we can here in Singapore, with real fir trees and branches of Eucalyptus, Mangos, Christmas Carols, candles, Pavlova and Pudding, our mother's traditions and love in all things –with anyone who’ll join us.
With full hearts, remember all those we miss and love and our glasses raised, knowing just how lucky we are.
From our family to yours, Merry Everything.
