It’s Christmas Time – Germans celebrating in Australia

Hi, it’s me again – Pauline, German intern at Eastside Radio.

I was asked to tell you something about German Christmas and how it feels for me celebrating it here in Australia for the first time.

So, there are only a few days left until Christmas and the first thing that’s missing is the snow. Before I came here I wasn’t even able to imagine Christmas without snow, but now I’m here, it’s summer, it’s getting hotter and hotter and next week we’re going to celebrate Christmas the Aussie Way, with a barbecue outside.

Just the fact of being able to be outside at Christmas for longer than a few minutes without freezing is totally new to me. Usually it is this time of the year, when people start to slow down their lives and spend more time with their families. It is just about being at home, getting cozy and relax. Because it is Summertime in Australia now, I have the impression that people start being active and most parts of living are happening outside now. So it was a bit difficult for me to get into the real Christmas Mood this year (and normally I am the person who is excited for Christmas again when it’s just over), but I by keeping up some traditions, like having an Advent Calendar, baking and listening to the typical Christmas Songs it worked out. Now I am really looking forward to Christmas Eve and I have to say that the thought of spending Christmas Day at the beach is quite pleasant.

What really surprised me is that you do not celebrate the “Advent” here in Australia as we do it in Germany. In fact the people here start decorating way earlier than we do it in Germany, but what we do is celebrating every Sunday in December as the 1st Advent, 2nd Advent and so on. So the first Christmas decoration we have is the “Advent wreath”, on which you light a candle every Sunday

in December and then we are getting the Christmas tree just a few days before Christmas Eve (and it has to be a real one!).

Last week a friend of my host mother told me that she always wanted to go to Germany during Christmas time because it is so famous for its huge Christmas Markets and that’s right. Whenever you got the chance you should visit a German Christmas Market, because in my opinion there is nothing better than walking around the market in the evening when it is snowing, having mulled wine, lots of good food and just enjoying the smell of cinnamon, gingerbread and sugar-roasted almonds. I have been to a Christmas Market her in Sydney as well, but that was more like a normal weekly market then a real Christmas market, though of course it was fun.

Another funny difference is that people here love having seafood for Christmas, while Germans

rather go with goose, red cabbage spiced up with cinnamon and apples and potato dumplings (which really suits the cold temperatures).

But of course there are some Aussie traditions as well, we do not have in Germany. Here we have these huge Christmas Sales everywhere right now and in Germany I think everything is getting more expensive before Christmas and then the huge Christmas Sale is happening afterwards. Besides starting to put up Christmas trees at the end of November, we don’t have these huge Christmas Carols that are happening everywhere in the city here all through December.