Kate tagged me to share 6 random holiday traditions/facts about my Christmases in Australia!

1. We always got a real Christmas tree. ALWAYS. We were the only house in our family to do so (the others didn't want the expense or the mess). It doesn't smell like Christmas without the smell of real pine in the house. We'd usually get it a week or so before Christmas so it still looked nice on Christmas day.

2. We hung our stockings (my mum made them when my brother & I were little and embroidered our names on them) on the dining room chairs. I think we did this because the dining room and family room (where the tree was) were one big room. Our only working fireplace was at the other end of the house. For a few years we set out huge paper footprints (to protect the carpet from the mess) to lead Santa through the house from the chimney to our stockings.

3. We used to go to church on Christmas Eve and we loved it when we were old enough to stay up late and go to midnight mass. It was the only time we'd go to church once we were teenagers. When I moved back to Australia for a few years we didn't go to midnight mass because my brother didn't want to go and my dad didn't care, so they'd stopped going.

4. On Christmas morning my parents would always set a time that was the earliest we were allowed to wake them up. Once we were up, we'd open our presents from Santa (in our stockings) straight away. He always brought many awesome little gifts, some wrapped and some not. Stockings are my favorite part of the presents and I'll miss not having anything to do with them this year. Then we'd have breakfast and showers, then sit down by the tree and open presents from each other one at a time. We always got presents from our cats too!

5. I have a pretty small extended family in South Australia - my paternal grandparents, my aunt & uncle, and 3 cousins. We actually got together almost every Sunday night at one of our housesanyway, but Christmas was always special still. There was a 3 year rotation for hosting Christmas, but when my grandparents moved to a smaller place about 6/7 years ago (we all miss their house!!) it became a 2 year rotation between my house and my aunt & uncles'. We got together early afternoon for a late lunch, followed by presents, and we'd usually stay through til nighttime.

6. Christmas is in summer (though we often have summer rains fall in Adelaide on Christmas day), and bbq is usually a big part of the meal. Traditionally, turkey (usually a turkey breast pressed roll) and potatoes are cooked in the oven, meat (sausages, steak, chicken) are cooked on the bbq, and we add a prawns, nibbles, and a ton of salads to that. Desserts were pavlova, mince pies, trifle, and pumpkin pie. I never really liked most of the Christmas foods.. way too much meat for me!

I tag:

That's Just Fabulous
Peeptoe Pumps and Pearls
Janelle
One Fabulous Mom