Saturday, December 08, 2007

Melting Christmas

Christmas time here is totally different. I was thinking that with time people get used to it but after chatting with a lady at the bank today, it sounds like once you've had "real" Christmas - in cold weather, cozied up inside, with the tree and a roast and hot cider, you can't get used to this kind of Christmas. Here candles melt on the fake tree because it's so hot. Every day, for the past couple of weeks it's been about 30C (about 95F), around 2 pm I usually start feeling like a candle in the heat. Apparently, this is just the beginning, it's going to get much hotter.

Most of the time the Christmas decorations in malls are the normal stuff, but the other day, in Byron Bay, we saw dolphins pulling a Santa in shorts and sunglasses. The Santa who offers to take pictures with kids at the mall totally seems out of place, as the bearded man is pouring sweat while trying to keep his cool and do the "Ho Ho Hos". This is subtropical climate, so forget about Christmas trees. The closest you come to is something that resembles a really plucked pine tree with long needles that towers about 5 stories high. And because of the heat, cooking is kept at the bare minimum. Just cooking a dinner for Neil at night seems to really heat the house up, so best is to grill or to eat salads. I wish we did more of that. Just lighting the candles at night heats up the room a couple of precious degrees.

I think that both Neil and I are really going to miss REAL Christmas. I have always wanted to live in a place where palm trees grow on streets instead of the normal trees and it is still going to be really good because we are hosting the Christmas for Graham and Judi, their kids, and the parents of the kids who they are married to, and my mom is going to be here. But it's not going to be REAL Christmas. But at least we know what REAL Christmas is and we always have people to go visit in the cold countries. We have met a lot of people who have never had "cold" Christmas. I think they are missing something very important...

3 comments:

melissa said...

I completely agree with you. There's something wrong when it's not cold and snowy at Christmastime. I'm really not a huge fan of being cold, but it never feels quite right if there isn't snow on my birthday, Christmas, and New Years. It just never seems as festive without the snow.

Karen said...

I was in Hawaii right after Christmas one year and it was really weird - all the Christmas lights on palm trees and stuff.

I bet it's a really big adjustment. I think we should all bake you holiday foods and send them over, so you don't have to do it and heat up your house. But by the time they get there, it'd be after Christmas. So much for that idea.

V said...

Wowsers - you are ambitious!! That sounds like a full, happy house for the holidays. I suspect that having family and friends nearby like that will make it seem more Christmas-y. :)