christmas down under
Every time I feel overwhelmed by these contradictions, I start flipping through our photo archives, gazing images of snow and Christmas deco for at least ten minutes. This is the only rational way to keep myself sane and to avoid landing in flip-flops on European land next month.
After spending my whole life celebrating birthday in the midst of winter, I fought hard to accept I’m a summer baby after all. January has always been about deep frost and white snow, whereas I now unwrap presents at the beach.
Soon after we had relocated, our first Australian December came and there was this question of how to decorate for Christmas when there is no snow and no cold outside. It’s kind of strange to go surfing in the morning and then come back home to a pile of snowy balls and Siberian reindeers… I know decoration is for fun and doesn’t need to be dissected but still, for us it felt a bit awkward. We contemplated for a while to skip Christmas altogether but then we chose a theme which combined our new Australian reality and old Eastern European traditions. We decorated with colourful lights and garlands of popcorn, orange peels and red chillies. The ritual breads and heavy festive meals we substituted with watermelon and fresh mango.
Truth is, we enjoy Christmas times Down Under. It’s summer vacation and beach time, and it is just lovely to start the New Year in a fresh, cheerful, optimistic mood. Below I am pasting a short list of what we’ve learned so far about Christmas Down Under (valid for a tiny fraction of the territory north of Sydney):
