I just love sharing the joy of seasonal celebrations, especially at this time of year when Australians and our New Zealander and Islander cousins are preparing to celebrate a summery and hot Christmas.
This was so interesting. I learned so much! I'm especially curious about that bush spice and I'm wondering if I can get it here in the U.S. 🤔 Growing up I remember watching this 1980s? movie called Christmas Down Under which I loved. It was fun imagining what it would be like celebrating a hot Christmas. We also have those decorated straw bales. Farmers typically decorate them for Halloween, but I have seen Christmas ones. We love eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas morning. Your festive lunch looks so refreshing!
Oh yum, cinnamon rolls! I love that farmers up there do the same thing but for different celebrations. Here's the spice mix info... I buy the bush spices from a local producer called ‘Bent Shed Produce’. The mix is called Oz El-Hanout and it contains pepperberry, lemon myrtle, wattleseed, aniseed myrtle, forestberry herb, and dried finger lime, as well as traditional ‘ras el hanout’ spices of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, coriander, and cumin. It gives the ginger cake a really interesting and distinctly Aussie flavour.
Our small Virginia town sends Santa out riding on top of a fire truck on Christmas Eve! In fact, they send several Santas out on several fire trucks so that they can hit all the residential neighborhoods. Even though it's cold outside here at Christmastime, we'll leave a window cracked so that we can hear the siren that announces that he is driving toward our street!
This is an amazing series -- can't wait to see the rest!
Oh my goodness!! I feel like I can taste & feel the Aussie Christmas in this post - thank you SO much for sharing these wonderful details. The appearance of Santa on a fire truck during the hot drought season makes so much sense, and I absolutely love this tradition of the decorated hay bales uniting so many disparate farms!
I'm fascinated by the native flora & fauna that are emblematic of Christmas in Australia, too - what a colorful, festive way to approach the holiday. Also, we're big Bluey fans here! :)
Growing up, Christmas Eve was always when my family had most of our festivities...we would open presents Christmas Eve and usually have munchy food, different kinds of appetizers etc. Then we'd have our turkey dinner on Christmas day. Seeing these photos of shrimp cocktails, etc. makes me want to try that sometime!
It so fun to share our traditions, especially with people who are as excited about seasonal traditions as I am. Christmas Eve is also the most important event at Christmas for my Canadian family. Many of them are Catholics and I remember as a child going to midnight mass in the snow, the church was lit up and decorated, there was a nativity play and carols, then we all went back to one of our Aunts/Uncles place and Santa had visited. One of my most precious childhood memories!
This was so interesting. I learned so much! I'm especially curious about that bush spice and I'm wondering if I can get it here in the U.S. 🤔 Growing up I remember watching this 1980s? movie called Christmas Down Under which I loved. It was fun imagining what it would be like celebrating a hot Christmas. We also have those decorated straw bales. Farmers typically decorate them for Halloween, but I have seen Christmas ones. We love eating cinnamon rolls for breakfast Christmas morning. Your festive lunch looks so refreshing!
Oh yum, cinnamon rolls! I love that farmers up there do the same thing but for different celebrations. Here's the spice mix info... I buy the bush spices from a local producer called ‘Bent Shed Produce’. The mix is called Oz El-Hanout and it contains pepperberry, lemon myrtle, wattleseed, aniseed myrtle, forestberry herb, and dried finger lime, as well as traditional ‘ras el hanout’ spices of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, coriander, and cumin. It gives the ginger cake a really interesting and distinctly Aussie flavour.
Thank you! I'll start hunting around!
Our small Virginia town sends Santa out riding on top of a fire truck on Christmas Eve! In fact, they send several Santas out on several fire trucks so that they can hit all the residential neighborhoods. Even though it's cold outside here at Christmastime, we'll leave a window cracked so that we can hear the siren that announces that he is driving toward our street!
This is an amazing series -- can't wait to see the rest!
Thanks Dixie, and what a lovely image of Santa on a fire truck in the snow!
Oh my goodness!! I feel like I can taste & feel the Aussie Christmas in this post - thank you SO much for sharing these wonderful details. The appearance of Santa on a fire truck during the hot drought season makes so much sense, and I absolutely love this tradition of the decorated hay bales uniting so many disparate farms!
I'm fascinated by the native flora & fauna that are emblematic of Christmas in Australia, too - what a colorful, festive way to approach the holiday. Also, we're big Bluey fans here! :)
Growing up, Christmas Eve was always when my family had most of our festivities...we would open presents Christmas Eve and usually have munchy food, different kinds of appetizers etc. Then we'd have our turkey dinner on Christmas day. Seeing these photos of shrimp cocktails, etc. makes me want to try that sometime!
It so fun to share our traditions, especially with people who are as excited about seasonal traditions as I am. Christmas Eve is also the most important event at Christmas for my Canadian family. Many of them are Catholics and I remember as a child going to midnight mass in the snow, the church was lit up and decorated, there was a nativity play and carols, then we all went back to one of our Aunts/Uncles place and Santa had visited. One of my most precious childhood memories!