Christmas in Australia
Christmas Down Under is celebrated on the 25th December and is observed throughout many parts of the world. As a cultural celebration, it's a peculiar mix - part myth, part magic, and part religion. Christmas traditions and symbols have come from many different cultures over the centuries. When you add that mix to a multi-cultural society like Australia's, and add to that our hot climate, you get a Christmas that is even more of a mixture.
Australia has largely adopted the winter-based traditions of the northern hemisphere - but it also has added a unique touches. Since the Australian Christmas is in the middle of summer - many don't do the full hot roast dinner. Many families pack up for a picnic or a trip to the beach or if they decide to stay at home then it might be salads and cold meats. But the steaming Christmas pudding with hot custard is still common.
Over the last few years Australian's have started celebrating "Christmas in July", where a traditional Christmas meal with all the trimmings - decorations, hats, bonbon's, carols, open fires - is served to those of us who, through either nostalgia for (or envy of) the northern hemisphere's "White Christmas", feel that cold weather is appropriate to the season.
In the days leading up to Christmas, many Australian families take advantage of the warm summer evenings to take a rug and some candles to a Carols By Candlelight concert, which attract large crowds to parks and outdoor stadiums across the land. The odd Australian Christmas carol will find its way onto the song-sheet and the most often heard is John Wheeler's "The Three Drovers" or Rolf Harris's "Six White Boomers", or Colin Buchanan's "Aussie Jingle Bells".
There is no such thing as a "typical" Australian Christmas as Australia has such a diverse society. English poet, John Milton, in his "Hymn on the Nativity", alludes to the Greek fable of the halcyon days:
Wherein the Prince of light
His reign of peace upon the earth began;
The winds with wonder whist
Smoothly the waters kist
Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.
And who has not heard the story from Charles Dickens' memorable tale, "A Christmas Carol"? It has become a prototype of popular Christmas entertainment. It's plot - a miserly curmudgeon comes to know the true meaning of Christmas through mystical insight - is an essential element in virtually every Christmas story and movie.
Rolf Harris wrote this Christmas song with American John D Brown in Perth, Western Australia, in 1960. He was working at a television station thinking it was crazy to be singing Christmas songs about snow and ice when the temperature was around 100 degrees Fahrenheit .
Was far from home and lost in a great big zoo
Mummy, where's my mummy, they've taken her a-way
We'll help you find your mummy son, hop on the sleigh
[Verse:]
Up beside the bag of toys, little Joey hopped
But they had'nt gone far when Santa stopped
Un-harnessed all the reindeer and Joey wondered why
Then he heard a far off booming in the sky
[Chorus:]
Six white boomers, snow white boomers
Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun
Six white boomers, snow white boomers
.. On his Aus-tra-lian run
Pretty soon old Santa began to feel the heat
Took his fur-lined boots off to cool his feet
Into one popped Joey, feeling quite OK
While those old man kangaroos kept pulling on the sleigh
Joey said to Santa, Santa, what about the toys
Aren't you giving some to these girls and boys
They've all got their presents son, we were here last night
This trip is an extra trip, Joey's special flight
Soon the sleigh was flashing past, right over Marble Bar
Slow down there, cried Santa, it can't be far
Come up on my lap son, and have a look around
There she is, that's mummy, bounding up and down
Well that's the bestest Christmas treat that Joey ever had
Curled up in mother's pouch all snug and glad
The last they saw was Santa headed northward from the sun
The only year the boomers worked a double run
If you would like this song in MP3 form please email me with the words
Six White Boomers in the message line
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