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(or summer season holidays, if you live in the Southern Hemisphere)
So it's about a week until Christmas and I'm pretty excited! I like Christmas, and I am curious to know what Christmas (or other holiday, like Chanukah) is like in everyone's homes because Other Countries Are Interesting.
Do you have any particular traditions around this time of year? My family insists on putting up decorations during the first twelve days of December and taking them down the first twelve days after Christmas (or it's bad luck next year or something). What kind of significance do the holidays have for you? I am really interested in what or how people celebrate this time of year in other places. :O If you don't celebrate anything in particular, you could always talk about what you do for New Year's if you want!
So it's about a week until Christmas and I'm pretty excited! I like Christmas, and I am curious to know what Christmas (or other holiday, like Chanukah) is like in everyone's homes because Other Countries Are Interesting.
In Australia it's super-hot (set to be ~38°C on Christmas Day) and basically none of the conventionally celebrated symbols in a Western Christmas are actually, y'know, around (snow, reindeer, sleighs, a temperature below zero in december, etc. etc.) but because a lot of Australians are European descendants, and Australia is a British colony, all of this stuff is still present. We decorate christmas trees, we decorate our houses with reindeer, and some places get that weird spray-on frosting that makes your windows look like they're snowing. There's also australian-based christmas stuff, too, like you can get christmas cards that have a sleigh being towed by kangaroos instead of deer and things like that, but they're kind of novelty things you send to family living in the northern hemisphere. Christmas lights are a huge thing here though, and there's usually local competitions for the best christmas lights. It's common to go driving through suburbia around christmas to look at people's lights.
In my family Christmas is a pretty secular thing and we basically take the opportunity to eat all day and give each other presents, which we open on Christmas day. There's usually a local Carols by Candlelight thing and probably a church thing too but we all kinda avoid that stuff. This year my parents are having people over for breakfast, and then we're seeing my stepdad's parents for lunch and my grandparents for dinner. My stepdad's parents are english immigrants and they usually have shitloads of decorations everywhere, but they make lots of traditional stuff like christmas pudding or turkey. For lunch though it's pretty common to have cold meats or seafood and salad because it's bloody hot, but we usually have an english roast for dinner.
Boxing Day we usually sit around and feel bad about overindulging the day before and maybe eat leftovers if we actually get hungry. Christmas and Boxing Day are considered National Holidays here, and sometimes people work on those days (though I'm pretty sure you can't open on Christmas Day unless you're a service or something). I'm working Christmas Eve which kinda blows but we don't really do much for Christmas Eve anyway.
In my family Christmas is a pretty secular thing and we basically take the opportunity to eat all day and give each other presents, which we open on Christmas day. There's usually a local Carols by Candlelight thing and probably a church thing too but we all kinda avoid that stuff. This year my parents are having people over for breakfast, and then we're seeing my stepdad's parents for lunch and my grandparents for dinner. My stepdad's parents are english immigrants and they usually have shitloads of decorations everywhere, but they make lots of traditional stuff like christmas pudding or turkey. For lunch though it's pretty common to have cold meats or seafood and salad because it's bloody hot, but we usually have an english roast for dinner.
Boxing Day we usually sit around and feel bad about overindulging the day before and maybe eat leftovers if we actually get hungry. Christmas and Boxing Day are considered National Holidays here, and sometimes people work on those days (though I'm pretty sure you can't open on Christmas Day unless you're a service or something). I'm working Christmas Eve which kinda blows but we don't really do much for Christmas Eve anyway.
Do you have any particular traditions around this time of year? My family insists on putting up decorations during the first twelve days of December and taking them down the first twelve days after Christmas (or it's bad luck next year or something). What kind of significance do the holidays have for you? I am really interested in what or how people celebrate this time of year in other places. :O If you don't celebrate anything in particular, you could always talk about what you do for New Year's if you want!
