Christmas in Australia
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Australians live on the world’s largest island, which is also the world’s smallest continent.
Most of Australia’s immigrants came from England and Ireland. Thereby many customs and traditions, including those at Christmas, are a merge of various cultures put together.
Weather
The seasons in Australia is often opposite to the rest of the world. Thereby, Christmas dawns with the arrival of summer!
Celebrating summer, Australian families love to do things outside. They love to swim, surf, sail, and ride bicycles. They like to grill meals outdoors on the barbecue, which they call the “barbie.”
Families decorate their homes with ferns, palm leaves, and evergreens, along with the colourful flowers that bloom in summer called Christmas bush and Christmas Bellflower. Some families put up a Christmas tree. Outdoors, nasturtiums, wisteria, and honeysuckle bloom.
Traditions
The most popular event of the Christmas season is called Carols by Candlelight. People come together at night to light candles and sing Christmas carols outside. The stars shining above add to the sights and sounds of this wonderful outdoor concert.
Christmas festivities begin in late November, when schools and church groups present Nativity plays. They sing carols throughout the month of December.
On Christmas Eve, families attend church together. Some children expect Father Christmas to leave gifts, and others wait for Santa Claus to visit and deliver gifts. However, in keeping with the hot Australian summer, Santa Claus is known to visit with a pair of red shorts! He gives his trusted reindeer a rest, and travel the island with a team of kangaroos known as the ‘six white bloomers’ (a popular Australian Christmas song) instead!
Food
After opening presents on Christmas morning, the family sits down to a breakfast of ham and eggs. Then the family goes to church again.
Christmas Day is the traditional gathering of families throughout the country. The same as in Sri Lanka, the highlight of the festivities is the holiday midday dinner. Some families enjoy a traditional British Christmas dinner of roast turkey or ham and rich plum pudding smothered in brandy and set aflame before it is brought to the table.
However, other families opt for a more informal meal, keeping with the temperature, head for the backyard Barbie to grill their Christmas dinner in the sunshine. Many families, even go to the beach or to the countryside and enjoy a picnic of cold turkey or ham and a salad. Father Christmas has been known to show up in his shorts to greet children at the beach on Christmas!
You too can Celebrate Christmas in Australia
Many Sri Lankan students dream of living and studying in Australia. In order to facilitate and make this dream come true, the Nawaloka College of Higher Studies, which is part of the renowned Nawaloka Holdings has partnered with the Swinburne University of Technology.
Students can commence the degree in Sri Lanka, and then transfer to Australia to complete their studies in the state of the art campus in Hawthorne, Melbourne.
To find out more on how you can commence your life
in Australia, call
0777 899 998/ 011 5 899 998 or email info@nchs.edu.lk