Vividly colored Christmas decor. Christmas in Australia can get hot. In some areas it can get up to 104 degrees. It might be because of our strong summer light, but many of us like to decorate our trees in vivid colors and irreverent baubles. The traditional Christmas greens and reds are still around, but as with this stunning tree, our desire to express our own yuletide cheer can be equal to our decor's intensity. Attending Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve is a big tradition. Most states have their own events, often outside, in which local singers and actors perform carols into the night. No matter what the weather, attendance is always high.
See more Christmas palettes that go beyond red and green
by Tobi Fairley Interior Design
See more Christmas palettes that go beyond red and green
A barbecue for Christmas. Cooking on the barbecue takes center stage on Christmas Day, especially if the temperature is on the rise. Rather than cranking up the indoor oven and overheating the host and the home, we let prawns sizzle happily on the grill while the traditional pork and lamb crackle away under the barbecue hood. With a fully equipped outdoor kitchen like this one, a chef wouldn't find it hard to employ many helpers.
by Michelle Walker architects
An indoor-outdoor Christmas. Porches, or verandas, are abundant in Australia. Again, this is because our climate is so changeable — sometimes it can be both stinking hot and raining at the same time. Either way, we end up feeling very grateful to sit under cover to enjoy our Christmas celebrations.
No matter what the weather, plum pudding with lashings of brandy cream is a must on Christmas Day in Australia. The puddings are made months in advance and boiled for hours on the day, while more brandy than cream is whipped up for serving. A long veranda like this could be the perfect spot to serve a stunning outdoor Christmas meal for the entire family.
by Summerour Architects
No matter what the weather, plum pudding with lashings of brandy cream is a must on Christmas Day in Australia. The puddings are made months in advance and boiled for hours on the day, while more brandy than cream is whipped up for serving. A long veranda like this could be the perfect spot to serve a stunning outdoor Christmas meal for the entire family.
An active Christmas. Australian families often play backyard cricket after lunch on Christmas Day. While most of the adults sneek away for that highly desired after-lunch nap, a brave few will join the children and bowl a few "overs."
On Boxing Day, more than 80,000 people show up at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch Australia play the first day of a four-day test match against an opposing international team. It's a huge event, and those who can't attend watch it on the television while eating leftover ham sandwiches.
Cricket might not be your thing, but a delightful well-ordered pitch like this is the perfect spot for testing the boccie set you got from Santa.
by Arterra LLP Landscape Architects On Boxing Day, more than 80,000 people show up at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch Australia play the first day of a four-day test match against an opposing international team. It's a huge event, and those who can't attend watch it on the television while eating leftover ham sandwiches.
Cricket might not be your thing, but a delightful well-ordered pitch like this is the perfect spot for testing the boccie set you got from Santa.
Christmas on the beachfront. Our main holiday break occurs over Christmas, so many families take time off to go to the coast. Christmas Day at the beach is very relaxed, with lots of swimming and ice-filled cocktails. The kids get up early to open presents, then one adult often takes them to the beach for an early swim while the others get the Christmas meal organized.
by Atelier 41 Architecture
Christmas poolside. Some of the most popular children's Christmas presents are games and toys for the pool. For those families lucky enough to have a backyard pool, Christmas Day is often spent playing water basketball and throwing skim balls until games like Marco Polo and Fish Out of Water take over.
Not until wrinkled toes and fingers appear are attempts to get children to the lunch table acknowledged.
by Secret Gardens
Not until wrinkled toes and fingers appear are attempts to get children to the lunch table acknowledged.
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I am an Aussie living in the US with an Australian company and won't be going home for Christmas. Your post gave me such a smile. That is EXACTLY how we celebrate xmas. I will be making a Christmas Pudding and brandy sauce for my gracious American hosts, but after your post I have been inspired to take them out to the backyard for a bit of after lunch cricket. It's all about the outdoors. Funny thing is, that is exactly what the company I work for is here to embrace.
Merry Christmas!
P.S. don't forget the sunscreen.
the funny thing is at our house we never do any of those things, our tree is green, we have a baked lunch (and we have what my kids call "country breakfast", which has bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and turkey sausages), the kids might play under the sprinkler in the afternoon if its hot, I have never been on a christmas beach holiday, we always go in the last two weeks of the school holidays (end of January), and the only person in our house that watches the cricket on Boxing Day is my husband, as I hate cricket and usually have to work anyway.
Stereotypes really annoy me sometimes.
Like you say with the "prawn on the barbie" such a common saying, yet they rarely get there, why stand in the heat and cook them when they are just as yummy shelled.
Yes, Joe, Church, especially on Christmas Eve is a big thing and leaving that out is like taking the 'Christ' out of 'Christmas'
I'm so glad others picked up on the photos, I felt so many details just weren't quite right, especially the beach house, but didn't like to say anything earlier.
And of course the Aerogard is missing too!!!
We have memories of one very hot Christmas day in the Barossa Valley, South Australia. Our Christmas tree that year was a very large dried flower spike from an aloe plant painted silver and another 8 footer was painted white with lots of coloured glass decorations.
Your article brought back thoughts of a wonderful Christmas spent Down Under.
We used to have Christmas on the Gold Coast when we were kids, but later, when we had Christmas at home, it was always fresh seafood, because it's just too hot to cook - and nobody ever considered lighting the barbie either! Just heaps of giant prawns, oysters, mud and sand crab - my goodness, I'm salivating just thinking about it!
I used to love going to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and we were allowed to open one small pressy when we got home, then off to bed.
Here's a photo from the ramp leading down to the beach where I live in Queensland, Australia.
Merry Christmas to everyone who works for Houzz and keeps this site looking so great, and to all of the contributors and readers. xxx
Anyways to me Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus as well as spending quality time with family.
We always eat cold meats, laze in the pool and play backyard cricket (the biggest skill is to catch a ball and not spill your beer). The late afternoon is either spent sleeping off the food coma or going to the beach. May I just add, there is nothing worse than a hot meal on a 40degree celcius day so BBQ's are few and far between.
I would love to experience a white Christmas though. Maybe one day.
As a contributing writer for Houzz, I am asked to use photo's from the Houzz site, to avoid copyright issues. This benefits all members of the site by sharing everyone's work . What would be terrific is if more Australians joined and then we would have more photo's to choose from.
Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year to all.
Thank you for explaining that, I can understand, still disappointed, but you are forgiven.
Let's see how many photos we can have added after Christmas.
My comment certainly was not intended to 'bag' the author. Perhaps an explanatory footnote which specified the editorial restrictions would be a way of preventing any disappointment.
Houzz is such an image based site that it is not unreasonable to assume that the pictures accompanying a site/place specific article are authentic to that place.
As others have said the solution would be to get more Australian images up. Otherwise, links to images may be a possibility ?
Fmshol I commend your loyalty to your friend and designer of you house.
This was not about aussies bagging aussies good diversion by the way.
This website gets 300 monthly page views it was the houzz community pointing out lack of professionalism and misrepresentation of images relating to the story.
I have since received an apology from Sheila houzz editor which I wont post as I wont presume I have her permission to do so. However I thank her for her response and honesty.
Happy holidays to all.