Christmas in Australia

Most Australians have been dreaming of a white Christmas for centuries. But the traditional European Christmas is just a myth for Australians. Santas wearing thick woollen clothes don't fit with Australia's thirty-degree heat. Thankfully things are changing fast. Now they have their own Christmas, Australian style.

Australia is a country which is largely made up of desert and sandy beaches. For the first settlers, two hundred years ago, a plate of corned meat and a mug of billy tea might have been the best Christmas dinner available. As a new nation developed and grew richer, people tried to recreate the kind of Christmas that they used to have in Europe.
However, the last ten years have witnessed some big changes in the Australian lifestyle. Many Australians now believe that the country should break its connections with Britain and the British Queen.
Now Australians see themselves as inhabitants 4i of the Asia Pacific region. So now Christmas has Jk got an Australian identity.

It's rare to find a flake of snow on Christmas cards these days. Now the publishers print Christmas cards with native Australian animals and landscape scenes of the Australian bush.

On Christmas day you'll find a large percentage of kids on the beach playing with their new surfboards, building sand-castles rather than snowmen. Indeed one of the most typical Australian Christmas presents is a beach towel.

Instead of being a serious time where most families are indoors, Australians are usually outdoors in shorts and T-shirts, having a friend's barbecue. There are loads of summer festivals with people celebrating Christmas in carnival style.

What is unique though is something that most Australians are starting to dream of. That is a Christmas of sunshine, surf and sand. Although to many Europeans this may seem strange, to many Australians its now the only Christmas worth dreaming of.