Celebrating Christmas in other countries isn't a first for me, for example I once celebrated Christmas in China a few years ago. Celebrating Christmas in China felt strange, but not incredibly alien. Hardly anyone where I was living celebrated it, but at least it was cold, I had to have lots of extra blankets on my bed, I had to wear more clothes and Chinese New Year was relatively close to Christmas, so there were festivites and ample decorations.
It's an even strange experience here in Australia though. Not a horrible, uncomfortable strange. Mainly because it's quite warm and sunny.
Christmases have become synonymous with bitterly cold weather, grey semi frozen slush (commonly referred to as snow in parts of the UK...although this year from what I've been told it will be quite a white Christmas), warm houses, boilers breaking, breath condensation at all times of the day, almost permanent darkness, being mystified why the Tube is so hot in summer and yet so cold in winter, beautiful Christmas lights augmenting the darkness, opulent Christmas decorations and Halloween/Guy Fawkes night heralding start of the first TV advertisements for the trappings of Christmas. Not to mention presents, the Christmas parties, going to Church, Christmas dinner, Christmas trees, the laborious and punishing ritual of Christmas shopping in shopping centres, Christmas decorations and an influx of tourists. These last 9 have reminded me that Christmas is coming.
I'll start with Christmas parties. In particular work Christmas parties. I was invited to two parties, my current work and my old work. My current work's Christmas party didn't feel Christmassy at all. For a start it was on 3rd December. It was a hot and humid day. We went on a boat cruise around Sydney harbour and to see a few islands, we passed a nudist beach and a whale (albeit in the distance out in the open ocean a bit more, but still it was a whale). We then went for lunch in a restaurant in a place called Watsons Bay. We had a buffet lunch of lots of different delicious foods (turkey and stuffing was notably absent from the menu) and an abundance of free drinks. All in the hot sun. We then went out in the evening for more drinks and it wasn't even necessary to wear a coat. Conclusion: depsite the scarcity of Christmas festiveness, I really enjoyed the day.
My 2nd work party was last Friday, 17th December. It felt more Christmassy, and there were a few Christmas decorations in the room that we had. It was in this lovely pub/restaurant in the Sydney CBD and the food was excellent. Again, turkey and stuffing was absent from the menu and I think I ordered steak. Lots of available alcohol again though . Conclusion: excellent night and festive feeling definitely increasing.
The influx of tourists has been noticeable in the city. More and more English accents and foreign languages in general. Australia and Sydney being a tourist hotspot it's not surprising though and the state of public transport hasn't really changed and is still busy. A obscure reminder of Christmas.
A loathing of Christmas shopping (more busy shopping centres at Christmas time) is universal, but it seems to be a necessity. The shopping centres here in the past month have been absolutely packed. This has been comforting, in a way...but has encouraged me to do Christmas shopping well in advance.
I have never really had the self-motivation to decorate with Christmas decorations at all, prefering the minimalistic approach to Christmas decoration. If someone else does it then it is fine, and I will happily join in. This lack of motivation is now evident, as my housemate, Dave, also shares an unwillingness to engage in Yuletide beautifying. However, I did impulse buy a set of sparkling solar powered LED lights which I hung in my bedroom window and a mini-Father Christmas with dangly legs. Dave contributed the fibre optic mini Christmas Tree complete with colour changing fronds (in the picture you can see the smorgasbord of colours that the tree has to yield - red and...orange).
Another noticeable anomaly of Christmas in Australia is that the adverts for Christmas-related things on TV don't actually start until mid-December, the time when you would think they're supposed to start. Admittedly, I don't watch too much TV in my spare time; in my daily job though I get to see plenty of TV. I also mean a good percentage of the TV channels; 75%. Some do start at the end of November. But this 75% of channels didn't occur until a week or so into December....as opposed to the start of November in the UK.
In all seriousness in spite of all the differences between the ways in which Christmas is celebrated, the actual reason for celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus, is still something that isn't lost on me. Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I'm glad that I still can remember what Christmas is actually for and the effect on the world it has had. I'm glad that I still can remember family and friends and glad that they're important to me. The differences of culture seem to reinforce, rather than nullify that message to me.
Wishing everyone season's greetings for a joyous Christmas and fantastic New Year. *<]:^)
It's an even strange experience here in Australia though. Not a horrible, uncomfortable strange. Mainly because it's quite warm and sunny.
Christmases have become synonymous with bitterly cold weather, grey semi frozen slush (commonly referred to as snow in parts of the UK...although this year from what I've been told it will be quite a white Christmas), warm houses, boilers breaking, breath condensation at all times of the day, almost permanent darkness, being mystified why the Tube is so hot in summer and yet so cold in winter, beautiful Christmas lights augmenting the darkness, opulent Christmas decorations and Halloween/Guy Fawkes night heralding start of the first TV advertisements for the trappings of Christmas. Not to mention presents, the Christmas parties, going to Church, Christmas dinner, Christmas trees, the laborious and punishing ritual of Christmas shopping in shopping centres, Christmas decorations and an influx of tourists. These last 9 have reminded me that Christmas is coming.
I'll start with Christmas parties. In particular work Christmas parties. I was invited to two parties, my current work and my old work. My current work's Christmas party didn't feel Christmassy at all. For a start it was on 3rd December. It was a hot and humid day. We went on a boat cruise around Sydney harbour and to see a few islands, we passed a nudist beach and a whale (albeit in the distance out in the open ocean a bit more, but still it was a whale). We then went for lunch in a restaurant in a place called Watsons Bay. We had a buffet lunch of lots of different delicious foods (turkey and stuffing was notably absent from the menu) and an abundance of free drinks. All in the hot sun. We then went out in the evening for more drinks and it wasn't even necessary to wear a coat. Conclusion: depsite the scarcity of Christmas festiveness, I really enjoyed the day.
My 2nd work party was last Friday, 17th December. It felt more Christmassy, and there were a few Christmas decorations in the room that we had. It was in this lovely pub/restaurant in the Sydney CBD and the food was excellent. Again, turkey and stuffing was absent from the menu and I think I ordered steak. Lots of available alcohol again though . Conclusion: excellent night and festive feeling definitely increasing.
The influx of tourists has been noticeable in the city. More and more English accents and foreign languages in general. Australia and Sydney being a tourist hotspot it's not surprising though and the state of public transport hasn't really changed and is still busy. A obscure reminder of Christmas.
A loathing of Christmas shopping (more busy shopping centres at Christmas time) is universal, but it seems to be a necessity. The shopping centres here in the past month have been absolutely packed. This has been comforting, in a way...but has encouraged me to do Christmas shopping well in advance.
I have never really had the self-motivation to decorate with Christmas decorations at all, prefering the minimalistic approach to Christmas decoration. If someone else does it then it is fine, and I will happily join in. This lack of motivation is now evident, as my housemate, Dave, also shares an unwillingness to engage in Yuletide beautifying. However, I did impulse buy a set of sparkling solar powered LED lights which I hung in my bedroom window and a mini-Father Christmas with dangly legs. Dave contributed the fibre optic mini Christmas Tree complete with colour changing fronds (in the picture you can see the smorgasbord of colours that the tree has to yield - red and...orange).
Another noticeable anomaly of Christmas in Australia is that the adverts for Christmas-related things on TV don't actually start until mid-December, the time when you would think they're supposed to start. Admittedly, I don't watch too much TV in my spare time; in my daily job though I get to see plenty of TV. I also mean a good percentage of the TV channels; 75%. Some do start at the end of November. But this 75% of channels didn't occur until a week or so into December....as opposed to the start of November in the UK.
In all seriousness in spite of all the differences between the ways in which Christmas is celebrated, the actual reason for celebrating Christmas, the birth of Jesus, is still something that isn't lost on me. Maybe it's just a personal thing, but I'm glad that I still can remember what Christmas is actually for and the effect on the world it has had. I'm glad that I still can remember family and friends and glad that they're important to me. The differences of culture seem to reinforce, rather than nullify that message to me.
Wishing everyone season's greetings for a joyous Christmas and fantastic New Year. *<]:^)
Comments
Post a Comment