Christmas in Australia – Semester Abroad Australia

Christmas in Australia – Semester Abroad Australia

Christmas time in Australia

Report by Katja N.

Having the family over…

For the first time of my life I spent the Christmas days far away from home. Fortunately my mother and my sister came for Christmas in Australia and New Year’s Eve, so it felt a bit like home. Many students stayed for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. They travelled, had a visit from home or stayed at the college for just 50 AUD/night. In Sydney the prices for hotels and hostels explode for Christmas time. So if you want to spend your time here in Sydney, you should book as early as possible. We found a very nice apartment with www.airbnb.com, directly located in the city and with a wonderful roof garden. We booked 8 months before and got a perfect price.

Different culture, different Christmas

Christmas in Australia 2_klein

Obviously the time before Christmas is different to what I’m used to. There are no Christmas markets with grog, cookies and candles. Trying to get into the Christmas mood, I bought some ginger bread cookies from ALDI. But it didn’t work. I couldn’t imagine that it was December. Maybe this was strengthened by the exams we had until 13 December, so we didn’t have much time to celebrate the best time of the year.

Christmas spirit…

In Sydney there were many decorated Christmas trees. They were very colourful, luminous and a bit over the top. In nearly all stores you could hear the famous Christmas songs. It was quite funny, when they played “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas”, because the outside temperature was far away from a snowy day.
On Saturdays there were free carols and fireworks in Darling Harbour. I was there on 30 November. There was also a Christmas Water Show, where Santa Clause came on a jet ski and some sailboats went through the harbour basin. It was a nice show, especially the choir, which sang some carols.

Christmas in the summer?

Christmas in Australia_klein
The 24 December is a normal day in Australia, different to Germany, where this day is the Christmas Eve. 25 December is the only public holiday in Sydney. For a long time I’ve dreamt of celebrating Christmas on the beach with a cocktail in my one hand and ice-cream in the other hand. But what happened on this Christmas day? Yes, it rained. I couldn’t imagine. This was my first and maybe last time celebrating Christmas in the South and it rained? This was not fair. We decided to make a relaxed Christmas day in our apartment, with some Christmas shows on TV and a lot of sleep. So I’m sorry but I can’t tell you how the Australians celebrate Christmas on the beach.

Boxing Day

The next day is Boxing Day in Australia. This is the traditional shopping day, with many discounts and very long queues. We wanted to avoid this stress and went to the Taronga Zoo. It was a perfect and sunny day and I couldn’t image that my family at home was eating their Christmas roast.
For me it seems a bit strange, that there is only one public holiday for Christmas. But it matches Sydney, the never sleeping city.