Christmas in July

It is winter in Melbourne and although their mother refuse to accept that July is now a winter month, the girls are just recovering from a week with high fever and coughing which they always get once per year during winter. Normally, winter is not that dark and gloomy in the northern hemisphere since we have Christmas to look forward to in December. In southern hemisphere, it is summer in December meaning that we have absolutely nothing to brighten up the dark and cold winter months. However, the clever Aussies have come up with something to cheer everyone up! Christmas doesn’t come once per year in the state of Victoria, it comes twice. ”Christmas in July” seem to be a BIG thing around Melbourne. Every little town and every theme park with self-respect organise something special to celebrate Christmas when it is winter, which it is in Australia in July.

Perhaps I am being narrow-minded because I cannot see the point in celebrating Christmas in July AND in December. I am already trying to cope with the fact that it is actually WINTER and cold in Australia, it was -1C in the morning a couple of weeks ago. How is that even possible? I mean, everybody knows that Australia is supposed to be warm and sunny all year around. Apparently this is only applicable to Darwin in the Northern Territory where they have lots of crocodiles, sharks, stinging jellyfish and other animals that are hazardous to your health. Yes, we have winter in Melbourne but the animals are less dangerous here.

 To get back to the ”Christmas in July” happenings; my husband is trying to convince me that it could be fun to go to Christmas markets, say hello to Santa Claus and listen to traditional Christmas songs. I don’t want to be a party pooper so I will be as enthusiastic as I possibly can although I think it is wrong to have Christmas-related events in July. Call it winter festivals or snow festivals because believe it or not, there is snow in the Victorian mountains. Not very much, just a couple of centimetres but with the snowmaking systems that all the ski resorts have it is entirely possible to go skiing even in Australia. As for having Christmas in July at our house, I am willing to compromise; I’ll bake some traditional Swedish Christmas buns and cookies, warm some mulled wine and light lots of candles when it is dark but there will be no herring and red-and-green table runners and place mats because it is NOT Christmas, it’s just winter. 

Sovereign Hill, the gold mining theme park, is offering an old-fashioned Christmas