Dec 25 2008
How Do Australians Celebrate Christmas Day?
I am still learning about how Australians celebrate Christmas day and what they eat for Christmas dinner (or lunch), so this blog entry is based on my observations and conversations with people in Sydney. As such, it is only part of the story. Christmas is probably celebrated differently in the hotter parts of Australia, such as Queensland or Western Australia.
It is a common misconception that all Australians celebrate Christmas with a barbeque on the beach. Last year, we went to Manly beach in Sydney on Christmas Day and found that it was filled with tourists and immigrants from other countries. There were few, if any, Australians celebrating Christmas Day on the beach.
It seems that many Australians spend Christmas Day indoors with their families. Many of them have a traditional roast Christmas dinner, although baked ham may replace turkey or chicken. There were definitely a lot of people in the butcher’s buying ham roasts in the run-up to Christmas.
As far as sweet treats are concerned, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake and mince pies are popular here, but some people eat pavlova, which is a cake with a meringue base topped with cream and fresh fruit. I would definitely agree that this dessert is more suited to the hot weather than the rich traditional Christmas fruit cake.
Apparently, some people have a Christmas barbeque in their garden and eat barbequed meat accompanied by salads, but I did not see any evidence of this in our neighbourhood on Christmas Day.
On this, our second Christmas Day in Australia, we ate lamb accompanied by an apple and walnut salad. This was a break with tradition and a concession to the Australian weather, which was warm but not hot.
I would be extremely interested to hear how other people celebrated Christmas Day in Australia.
I love learning about different cultures. In America most celebrate at home with families enjoying a wonderful turkey or ham dinner with all the stuffing, baked yams and pumpkin pie you can eat.
It sounds similar to the UK (where I’m from) and Australia, apart from the baked yams (I’m not even sure what yams are!) and pumpkin pie, which, to me, is very American! Hope you enjoyed your Christmas dinner!