How do you celebrate the holidays in Australia/New Zealand?

[Ilander]

Well, I fixed the "shouting" thing out of courtesy...posting while sleepy has a bad effect on me, making me think that all caps are equivalent to bold letters.

Davros, that was slick. You answered my question in such a way as to still leave me with no clue whatsoever!

Callum, fake evergreens? Well, that's nothing new, as I've only ever had fake evergreens, but fake snow is something I wouldn't have expected. That's terribly interesting.

Oh, and Hive, that sounds like my kind of holiday season .

[T-D-C]

There is nothing better than some prawns on the BBQ, a cold beer and relaxing by the pool or beach on Christmas day and Boxing day.

It would be nice to see snow (as I have NEVER been to the snow before) but the chance of that happening in Sydney is slim to none.

[The Hierophant]

Christmas comes right in the middle of the southern hemisphere's 'summer vacation', so most kids have already been out of school for several weeks by the time Christmas rolls up, and continue to be for several weeks afterward too.

I'll echo what Dav and TDC have said. My Christmas is pretty much just an extension of usual western 'summer holiday' fare. Barbeques, beaches, tanning, throwing the football around; y'know, summer outdoorsy stuff.

This Christmas I'll be heading to my cousin's place in Central Otago. A very hot, dry, rocky, hilly area (where they filmed the scenes for Rohan in the LotR trilogy to give you a visual image). We'll do the whole Christmas Day gift-giving thing, then have a barbeque lunch and a roast dinner. There are a fair few rivers around Alexandra (the small town where we'll be staying), and my cousins own a jet boat, so we'll do some water skiing too most likely. I havn't been there since I was 14, so the whole affair should be great fun.

So far we havn't had much of a summer here. It has been wet, rainy, and even snowy in some areas for the past few weeks. At this time of year the Southern Alps (the 'Misty Mountains' from LotR for yet another visual image) are usually bone dry, but I was driving past them a few days ago and they were covered in snow. Not very nice considering December is usually sun-tan time [img]smile.gif[/img] Here's hoping things heat up a little in time for Christmas (or 'end-of-year, summer-time, present-giving day' as I like to call it, being a non-Christian ).

And no I've never dreamed of a white christmas. I'm not a huge fan of snow. I only like it when it's asked for, ie: when skiing or snowboarding.

[ 12-13-2004, 06:39 PM: Message edited by: The Hierophant ]

[Sir Goulum]

You people are *so* lucky down there. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Ilander]

Summer vacation for the kids too? Hmm...sounds swell!

Well, like I said in Gen Con...it's snowing already here in Kentucky...we've had white Christmas's and muddy Christmas's, the latter more frequent.

I guess hams and turkeys aren't exactly the traditional fare either, are they?

[LennonCook]

My family usually has a barbeque breakfast, a mised lunch (roast cross salad), and a fairly normal tea (which includes any leftovers from lunch).
For a tree, fake ones are becoming more common, but for real ones, most people tend to use pines (or, atleast, that's what you see getting sold in the markets). We have plenty of evergreens in Australia - most (all?) or our natives are. But, it doesn't matter too much in the summer.
As for a 'white' Christmas, I suppose it would be interesting... it would be nice to see some real snow any time of the year, though. [img]smile.gif[/img] Last time I can remember it settling in Orange was about 7 or 8 years ago... and that only lasted a couple of days before it melted.

[Lauren]

Well my christmas's in australia can vary depending on which family I'm with. If I'm with my greek side of the family then that involves getting the whole greek family together having the mother's, grandmothers and aunts cook the greek christmas lunch; the fathers, grandfathers and uncles staying out side and out of the road from the females who are cooking; the children and teenagers watch tv, eat lollies or play outside. When we are all together at once everyone is bickering and arguing, voices are raised and it's mostly spoken in greek.
By the end of the day everyone is so mad they ended drinking themselves to sleep...lol

Now with my dad's side of the family we have a traditional english breakfast and then during the day the adults drink and the children play with the new found toys... by the end of the day each family member is drunk (except for the children).

Now if I'm just with my mum, dad and sister then we just relax ... eat drink whatever during the day, and we have a bbq dinner.
That is my christmas story...lol [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Callum]

Originally posted by Ilander: Callum, fake evergreens? Well, that's nothing new, as I've only ever had fake evergreens, but fake snow is something I wouldn't have expected. That's terribly interesting.

I don't of course mean that the government sets up big machines to spread snow all over the country

Just that everything is decorated with cotton wool, frosted effects on windows and displays, sometimes some kinds of white powder type things... [img]tongue.gif[/img]