Hi there,
While looking for the lyrics for a few Australian Christmas Carols I came across your site.

What a beautiful place you have created! Really truly so much work and I thoroughly enjoyed reading through all the information with my children.

The internet is such a wonderful place to give those who don't live in major cities access to information. Thank you for creating such a space, and your continued efforts to celebrate Australian culture. Happy Christmas
Cheers

Hi, I just discovered your web site and I love it. Thank you for creating it.

I was born in England but emigrated to Australia in 1961 as a baby.

We have always had the traditional hot Christmas roast lunch, with home made sausage rolls, mince pies and pudding Usually made a year before.

I love the tradition even though it's me now that has to swelter in the kitchen cooking and cleaning, but that is where the 'Englishness' ends. I couldn't imagine it being cold at Christmas no bbqs, no street parties, no Christmas light displays, no sitting on the front lawn Christmas Eve waiting for the CFA truck with Santa throwing lollies.

I love the Aussie Christmas songs and stories that I share with my children. In all I love Australia and we should stand up and be proud of our country and stop copying other countries on the other side of the world!

I replied
Paige
You will find all the information you need about Christmas in Australia at   tww.id.au/c/index.html  
I trust this helps you.
Tom

10th June 2011 - From Paige
thank you soo much Paige

Hi there Tom
Thank you so much for the very informative site I have recently discovered. I am sending the song from your site, The twelve days of Christmas (First Version) to my family reunion in England.
Thank you Tom. Keep up the good work I will be on your site again for a lot more info as there is lot’s to have fun with.

I have a question about Christmas in Australia, but before I ask I wanted to tell you how much I have enjoyed your website. I was wondering what traditional foods are enjoyed for Christmas. Dinners and desserts. Thanks for your time.

You have certainly created a comprehensive website! I know how it can start as something small and work itself into something large, especially when you like helping people.

I was viewing your 'write to Santa' page and very much enjoyed the application for a Santa visit - especially the reduced number of gift requests for 'bad' behaviour!

I hope this day finds you well.
I am so thrilled to find your website. Our school is planning to do a Christmas around the world theme soon and I would like to use some of the information from your website; will that be OK?

I will let you know how it goes, if you are interested. Have a great day!

My reply - Feel free to use any material on my pages. Tom

GI-DAY. I am an Australian who has now been living in the UK for the last 8 year's and I am pleased to have found your web site so that I can teach my children the Aussie carols that I forgot as I'd like them to learn about their Aussie heritage as well as their British one.

Looking round your site was a trip down memory lane, I do miss a good old hot Aussie Christmas, and Australia it's self, the UK just ain't the same and the Brit's don't always understand what I'm saying.

Thank you for helping to make the Australian tradition known to every one all round the world.

HOOROO from a true blue Aussie.

I just wanted to thank you again for all of your assistance with our project. He is back at school and he informed me yesterday that he got a 100 A+. So we owe it all to you and your website. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What an excellent web site. Well done and thank you.

I have searched your website and I have found a lot of useful information on Australian traditions at Christmas time. Thank you for your awesome website.

Thank you for your website, it's fantastic. I moved from Sydney, Australia to Switzerland, 6 years ago and I've now got friends from Europe asking me 'What's Christmas is like in Australia'. I did a search on the net and bingo! your site popped up.

I'm coming home this year for Christmas. After looking at your website, I CAN'T WAIT!

I've sent your link to all the Europeans that wanted to know 'What do we do down there for Christmas? Is there snow? What do you eat? What kind of songs do you sing? and do you really have BBQ's in the cold?' (I've had some really odd questions!).

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Cheers

I came across your site at work here in Hong Kong when I was looking for Australian lyrics to use in Chinese schools to illustrate our cultural adaptations. It's great!

Congratulations on your lovely site. I've only been in Australia for 11 years now and I still miss my English Christmas celebrations in the snow/freezing cold! My (sadly now departed) mum always did the full English Christmas dinner from scratch, I don't think she knew how to use a can opener and we never had a freezer..

In reference to December 2006, Tracey wrote from Tamworth about the wishing, no, it wasn't invented by her mum to make her eat the pud, it's a very old English tradition and is still upheld in many English households, the stirring of the pud by all members of the family, then the wishing as you eat the first bite, with a special wish going to whoever finds the, silver sixpence, or "threepenny bit". I've managed to keep a silver sixpence in my Christmas fare tools for just this purpose.

When I first came to Australia I did attempt to do the full Christmas dinner (more for my mums benefit), but after a couple of years it was just to hot!... We've since adopted the Australian style of fresh seafood starter, apricot and honey glazed ham or apricot stuffed turkey (cooked on the barbie of course) and salads, one each provided by various members of the family. I've made several varieties of, Christmas Cake / Pudding, one of the most popular being the ice cream mixed up with nuts, fresh and dried fruit and alcohol as per classic pud, Shaped into a ball and, iced, with plain vanilla ice cream and a sprig of plastic holly!

This year it's to be a classic Yorkshire Vinegar Cake, one of my mums heirloom recipes, for the Christmas Cake, in her honour.

Something I don't see often in Australia is the, Boxing Day Lunch. This is Turkey leftovers, with a ham, and other cold meats served with pickles, chutneys and salads and, for some reason I remember, hard boiled eggs. This was followed by the classic sherry trifle, more mince pies and watching of the TV.

I love the Christmas lights displays which as far as I know is unique to Australia, I've lived all over Europe and I've never seen displays taken to such lengths by ordinary householders.. There used to be a whole suburb near us (Chipping Norton, NSW) where serious lighting was done by almost every house. Thousands of people would walk and drive around, it was absolutely magic, they've stopped now unfortunately.. there are still some very good displays, but I've yet to see one beat those.

Again, thanks for your great site. It is difficult not to feel,disappointed, by the lack of snow, the heat, etc... in an Ozzie Christmas, but then there are the street parties, having the neighbours over for drinks, the fabulous seafood, the light-shows, the swimming pool, and of course warm feet and fingers!

Another uniquely Australian tradition, Each year someone (I'm not sure who) drives around in a decorated Holden ute with a Santa in the back in full dress handing our lollies to the kids in the street, maybe it's local to Milperra, but friends say they remember similar in their childhood suburbs.

What a wonderful site. I have passed on the address to my teaching friends for use in the classroom.

I am a teacher and love your web page. A fabulous website that I share with my many international friends plus there are a lot of us homesick Aussies out here.

A friend sent me "Christmas in Australia." In January of 1966 I hopped a German freighter out of New York city and worked my passage to Sydney. Two weeks later I was in the bush hunting rabbits with a light and silenced .22 rifle. We got a shilling a rabbit.

I worked on two different rail-road gangs, one in the suburbs and one in the rainforest. I cut sugar cane and got $1.00 a ton (green cane). Worked as a cook on Brampton Island, in a fertilizer plant, a roustabout on a sheep station a long way north of Perth, a prospector, on a cattle station in Victoria, a "Mr. Whippy" driver in New South Wales.

The best (and most famous job) was a deckie on the first big game marlin boat in Cairns, Captain George Bransford's "Sea Baby." I caught the first "grander" marlin in the history of Australia and the first grander black marlin on #80 line in the world. If your not a fisherman you would not know of this. This past September I was invited back to Australia after 40 years.... My flight and hotels were paid for by the Cairns game fishing club and (mostly) "Bluewater" fishing and boating magazine. It was a dream come true and I enjoyed the second greatest adventure of my life. I traveled (1966) through all 6 states and visited every capital city but Darwin, because the road was washed out north of Tennant Creek.

I read where you started collecting Australian stamps in 1960. I started about 1954.... Australia soon became my favorite country and I dreamt on how it must be like.... little did I or anyone know that in 12 years I would be on your magnificent soil.

I love your country and when I was out fishing in the largest tournament ever held in Queensland this September.... and one of the top five ever in your country, I brought home to the USA water from the marlin grounds off the Great Barrier Reef.

Well, I wrote more than expected and I sure hope this email does not come back as undeliverable. God bless you and your family and the great country of Australia. Merry Christmas and a wonderful year of 2007.

I had to drop you a line to tell you how much I enjoyed your website about an Australian Christmas and all that it entails. I am a complete Christmas maniac and it is always a treat to learn how my favorite holiday is celebrated internationally.

You answered a lot of questions that Americans commonly have about Australians and Christmas (and yes, there are those of us who are intellectually curious that way). For instance, Christmas trees. We are always taught here that since your summer is our winter, you did not bother with Christmas trees. We were also always taught that you did not recognize Santa Claus, only Father Christmas. And, of course, it blows your Garden Variety American's mind that you go to the beach on Christmas Day. For us, that's the kind of treat one would get if Santa Claus left airline tickets to Barbados under the tree!

Of course, you reinforced some fallacies that Americans cherish, Father Christmas doesn't use white kangaroos in lieu of Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph, does he?

I like your site very much and whether or not I hear from you, Merry Christmas. Peace on Earth in 2007.

I would just like to let you know however, that where I come from, I do not know of anybody that has live Christmas trees. For my entire life, myself, my friends and family use the same 'artificial' pine Christmas trees every year. In fact, it has grown to be apart of our family!

Wishing a merry Christmas to everyone. Stay Cool!

hiya Tom, read your internet site about Australia and Christmas traditions. As a 5th generation Aussie I can say it was very interesting and pretty close to the core, except for the part about Santa sacks, which of course you were corrected on.

The only exception I can see is where you say that only 10% of people have door wreaths. I'm not sure what area you live in but where I'm from, the beach suburbs of southern Sydney, the majority of people have always had door wreaths, from the time I was a child (late 50's - 60's) most homes had a wreath on the door, and it's even more so now!

Also one of the other biggies of Christmas is the sound of cicadas on a hot day, all part of the process of growing up in a hot climate. Although you mention that Boxing Day is a big day for sporting events, particularly the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, most people are specifically hanging out for the cricket to begin on that day, which is all part of the Aussie Christmas tradition.

Sunshine, surf, beer, cricket and tennis, what more could anyone in the world desire?? Thanks. Loved your site! Dot

Tom, a link to your Aussie Christmas site has been a godsend to explain our 'down under traditions' to friends in the Northern Hemisphere (Finland) who think 25C degrees is hot!! LOL

My memories of Christmas as a child are of making the trip from Sutherland (NSW) to Hurstville by train, then catching a bus to Kogarah shops and finally walking the last leg to my grandparents house. The kids always had a little table separate from the grown-ups and Gran ALWAYS cooked a roast dinner regardless of the soaring temperature outside, and if the pumpkin wasn't black it wasn't worth eating!

All the kids were most excited about searching the christmas pudding for the 'thruppences' and making mush of the pudding and custard just happened to be a fortunate consequence!

Aaah, I miss those times....... Cheers.

28 September 2005 From: Delwyn, Melbourne
Hi Tom, Just wanted to drop you and line and let you know I have been enjoying looking through your web site on Aussie Christmas's.

For the last 10 or so years our family has picked a theme for our family Christmas, in 2000 we had a theme of Christmas in 1900, last year it was a winter theme, we've had a “country “ theme etc etc, This year our theme is an Australian Christmas which is how I ended up on your site. And I've enjoyed it immensely.

Thought I'd add a little something myself ,coming from Melbourne one of the things I associate with Christmas here is the Myer Windows which each year they do up to tell a story (not always a Christmas story) they have animated characters etc.

As a child it was always a treat for our family to head into the city (often at night) and see what wonders they had created each year. Now that I'm grown and have my own children it's something we all like to do together as well.

I have heard rumours that with the sale of Coles Myer the windows may not be something that is done in the future which would indeed be a sad thing. Hope you enjoy the link. Thanks again for all the wonderful things on your website. Wishing you a happy Christmas for 2005.

12 October 2005 I had advised Delwyn that I had loaded her email and I received the below reply.
Thanks Tom that's great. I looked at the site and told my children my letter made it onto a website..... My 9 year old daughter was very excited and said that tomorrow that will be her show and tell at school.

31 December 2004 Second email from:Tess Alan directed me to the download. We did it. Christmas Eve came and I gathered my family around, all 25 of them, and put the song on. Wide eyes and squeals of delight!! Many tears, especially from my dad. I had burned CD's for everyone, a real treasure. It brought back so many sweet memories. I even gave a copy to my very sweet little neighbor girls (8,6,3 yrs old) and it's their newest favorite Christmas song!

I cannot thank you enough. My father and family sends a big thank you also. It was the highlight to this family's Christmas! I hope yours was good also. May God Bless you both for your kindness in the New Year.

We lived in Adelaide for three years in the 70s. We moved back to the US and lived in San Marcos Texas. My parents still have a painting of the outback they purchased when they took a trip to the outback. They also have a lamb skin next to it. Their most precious memories of the family are of the time we lived in Australia. They were simple and healthy times for our family. My sister often dreamed of going back and working there. She had applied to work at the Olympics but passed away before she had that opportunity.

Since my sister passed away every year my parents have asked for a copy of “The Australian Christmas Carol” that she sang at a school programme at St. Joseph Tranmere in Adelaide. I have found it on your site.

You can not believe what this will mean to my parents. We have piano and organ in the house and I will practice so when they come to dinner Christmas eve, I will play it. I can not thank you enough. this will truly bring joy (and a tear) to their heart. I wish the most merriest of Christmas to you and your family.

Know that you will have truly brought a joy to my parents' life that they have long missed.

PS. The students in my 8th grade science class have been listening and reading the words. They think it is the most beautiful song they have heard. Perhaps they will visit your country in the near future.