Christmas Down Under

It is Christmas season here down under. It does not feel like it. Perhaps it is because each day is slighter warmer than the day before. Perhaps it is because I am so far from home and do not have any family nearby. I don't know.

In Australia this is called "The Silly Season", not "The Holidays" as we say in the US. I think calling it "The Silly Season" is silly. They call it the silly season because people go to lots of parties and get drunk, goof off, and generally act silly. It is also because they celebrate Christmas in an English style. To them, Christmas is a birthday party, not a commercial gift buying exercise or a religious holiday as in the States. For example, when you go to an Xmas dinner, people wear silly tissue paper crowns and toot little horns and exchange small gag gifts. It makes sense when you think about it. After all, it is supposed to be a birthday party.

They don't have as much commercialism of Christmas down here. Or at least to me the volume of Christmas seems much lower. It could be that I'm simply out of touch since I do not watch much television and I have no radio. You do not see images of Santa Claus or other icons. In fact, Santa is very rare.

However, I did get to witness an Australian Christmas event. Sunday morning I was swimming at the beach. All these kids were there at the life guard building. Santa showed up from out at sea in an outboard driven Avon inflatable boat, landed in the surf, and handed out hard candy ("lollies" as they are called here) to the kids.

One very odd thing. In early December I was downtown leaving work late one evening when the Christmas parade started . Every kid in the metro area must have been either in the parade or watching it. I noticed many of the kids where wearing lighted devil horns on their heads. They are a small pair or dark orange horns with a battery powered light inside. Somehow Halloween costumes have become Christmas decorations here.

Also, they get the day after Christmas off as another holiday called Boxing Day. I don't know what this has to do with boxing. Perhaps it is because by day 2 of Christmas the family members are now boxing each other. I'll find out.

I don't have any real plans for the two days of holiday. Trish has banned her family from coming over to her house. She said that she has hosted the family for 30 years and will not do it any more. She said it takes her a week to clean up afterwards. So instead the family is going to go over to her daughter Nancy's house and have a dinner there. I suspect everyone will end up at Holland House anyway because that is where the pool is.

I've been invited by a Canadian couple here at work to join them out on Rottnest Island. They have a boat and are going out there for the week. I can catch the ferry out and hook up with them. I think I shall do that.