Christmas Eve in Australia at 35 degrees: Bye-bye, Christmas spirit

Created: 12/24/2022, 2:41 p.m

By: Catherine Loesche

The holidays are high summer in Australia.

© Saeed Kahn/afp (archive photo)

In Australia, thousands of German emigrants celebrate Christmas under palm trees far away from their families.

However, there is hardly any typical German Christmas spirit.

Rather homesick.

Brisbane – It smells like cookies, gingerbread lures on red and gold plates, the scent of marzipan is in the air, the open fire is crackling, the snow is falling softly.

There is mulled wine to warm you up at the Christmas market.

But is that what Christmas looks like in tropical Australia?

"I remember that in the first year I sat inside with my friend Susi with the air conditioning turned on full blast and drank mulled wine," says Stephanie of the

by IPPEN MEDIA.

Like many German-speaking immigrants, she will never forget her first Christmas at 35 degrees in muggy Brisbane.

"When I moved to Australia eight years ago, I didn't really get into the Christmas spirit at first.

Mainly because it was so hot and because we always had a real tree with real candles at home.

With my first Advent wreath here, the candles tipped over after three days from the heat, they just melted away,” reports Gesa. 

Christmastime is high summer Down Under.

It's the summer holidays and the students have almost two months off from the beginning of December to the end of January.

It's just too hot.

In the southern hemisphere, the image of a white Christmas only exists in the shop windows of large department stores.

Most Australian families spend the holidays with friends and family on the beach or in their backyard by the pool.

Christmas carols are sung with a happy splashing.

Christmas in Australia: Coniferous trees would dry up

The Australian loves the holiday season - it can't start soon enough.

The Christmas tree will already be set up on December 1st.

Despite the heat, it easily lasts until January - because the blue fir is made of plastic.

A real coniferous tree would dry up immediately in the heat wave.

It is therefore unclear why the Germans' favorite tree decoration - tinsel in all colors - has not made it to the continent to this day. 

Marie is from Austria.

Your partner is Australian.

Their son grew up with both traditions.

“On Christmas Eve we meet up with our German and Austrian friends.

In the afternoon we swim in the pool and in the evening we sing Christmas carols.

They are the most important thing for me for the Christmas spirit,” she says.

The classic "O Tannenbaum" is part of the young family's fixed repertoire.

"Even my Australian partner can do that, he learned the first verse years ago."

Things are different in the middle of the outback with the Röske family on a sheep farm around 800 kilometers north-west of Adelaide.

The traditional baking of cookies with the children is cancelled.

"Despite the air conditioning, the dough melts before we've even cut out the biscuits," says Stefanie, disappointed.

She finds it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit, she already has a bad conscience towards her children, since the German traditions surrounding the festival are one of her fondest childhood memories.

"It's a shame that I can't pass this on to my children."

Christmas on the beach: Plastic trees and colorful Christmas balls are a must

Susanne and Peter, on the other hand, live and love the full “Aussie experience”: their car is equipped with a kitchen on board, a tent on the roof, a powerful all-wheel drive and a so-called snorkel for water crossings with everything you need to be on one of the around 12,000 beaches of the continent to camp completely autonomously.

“We really don't miss the cold season in Germany, even on the public holidays.

We enjoy waking up in the morning by the sea, far away from any Christmas hustle and bustle," says the 55-year-old.

Just a small plastic Christmas tree with colorful baubles, which has to come with you.

Stella also remembers her first festival Down Under well.

“We're driving along the water there, up to Rainbow Beach.

This is a busy route, like a beach highway,

you're racing over the sand at 80 km/h.

And suddenly there's a police checkpoint, several lanes marked out and everyone, really everyone, was waved out and had to blow," explains Stella.

"It's really only here."

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For the children with German roots, on the other hand, one thing is particularly important: when are there presents?

In Germany, the Christkind or Santa Claus comes on the 24th, in Australia Santa comes very early in the morning on the 25th.

As a parent, you can work up a sweat even without summer temperatures.

The way you do it as an expatriate, you do it wrong.

Stephanie has been in Australia for over ten years and has finally found the happy medium for her family.

"So we have Santa Claus, who is called Santa here.

And of course he can't come on the 24th, because he'll be in Germany on the 24th.

Then he travels here overnight and is here on the morning of the 25th.

However, we unpack gifts from our families in Germany on the 24th,” says Stephanie.

Gifts are not available until December 25th

Marie also involves her family in Austria.

"When it's 5 a.m. on the 25th and 8 p.m. on the 24th at home, we skype with my family and Christmas carols are sung over Skype.

I always get a bit nostalgic, because then you see the Christmas tree with the candles on it, the real candles, not the plastic things, and then I think to myself: Oh, now it would be nice to be in Austria."

Traditional Christmas using modern technology.

Thanks to Zoom, Skype, Facetime and other video calls, Australia and Germany are closer on Christmas Eve than geography would allow.

Because even if you have homesickness under control 364 days a year: The Christmas season is different.

“Of course, homesickness is always an issue at Christmas, more so than usual. I think you just have to try to be in touch and surround yourself with friends here and facetime with our family and maybe even then unwrap presents together.

And then it actually works quite well for us,” says Stefanie.