December 1st: the first day of summer in Australia and the first day of Advent. Advent means ‘coming’ and is a time of waiting for Christmas – we have advent calendars and advent candles to count down the days till the big celebration. So who has already put up their Christmas tree? (I’ve seen some photos of a Battersea one!) Well, most of Australia has, it seems. Yesterday, as we had just arrived in Brisbane, we went for an evening walk, and found a band playing and singing Christmas carols in the square (and it wasn’t even Advent then!) For an authentic ‘in the crowd’ experience, just listen to the audio below!
Christmas in the sun is a very strange experience. There are tall Christmas trees in town centres but none are real fir trees, as it is too hot. There are lots of decorations involving snowflakes, snow, reindeer and things that you are very unlikely to find in an Australian summer! But there are some amusing Australian variations too (look closely!).
Nana Down Under 