The Stockings Were Hung!

Stockings! I knew that I had forgotten something. They are in one of those boxes of Christmas, somewhere, waiting. An interesting tradition.

I head an Australian talking on the radio yesterday about the Christmas traditions there, where summer has just begun when Christmas arrives. Instead of being dark, cold, and snowy, it is beach weather. Awesome! He also talked about hanging a large pillowcase on the end of the bed and waking to find it filled with presents in the morning.

Santa on a Boat in Australia

So who needs stockings?

I found a website devoted to Christmas in Australia.

Throw me on Bondi Beach for some rays in the afternoon.

The website reports:

The most important day of Australian Christmas traditions is the Christmas Day (25. December). Often it starts with packing the picnic bags and eskies in the morning, to celebrate Christmas on the beach. It is a picnic lunch that starts early and doesn't often finish before the sun sets so a fair bit of food and beer is consumed. 
Australians used to eat the traditional British Christmas meal, Christmas turkey, but in later years we’ve developed our own Australian Christmas food, much more suitable for the hot weather. It consists of all possible cold snacks whether it is seafood, meat, chicken or a combination of them, and potato salad, pasta salad, or just green salad, and bread. Not everyone goes to the beach, many families have Christmas lunches in their back yards too, but it's always a lunch, not a dinner.

What's an eskie? American Eskimo Dog, of course, I think.

The high temperature in Sydney is expected to be 75 degrees today.

I, unfortunately, got to enjoy the mall again yesterday for that one last gift from a store that is only in the mall. I would have much preferred the beach.

Some year, perhaps a Caribbean Christmas cruise vacation!

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD