Christmas in Two Hemispheres
Hot or Cold, what’s your preference?
Apart from a Christmas visiting my godmother in the UK when I was fourteen and another in California when I was an au pair at twenty-two, I spent the first forty-three years of my life celebrating Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere.
At fourteen I enjoyed the slightly white and cold Christmas in the UK and marvelled at the small flutters of snow, but to be honest, I remember very little of that trip. As for Southern California, one could hardly call it a northern hemisphere Christmas. It’s well-known that “SoCal” has a far too temperate December climate to be considered in the north.
So let’s return to the tropical heat of Southern Hemisphere Christmases for a moment.
Christmases in South Africa — or at least with my family — followed the same pattern throughout my childhood. We had a special roast dinner, usually turkey, roast potatoes and veggies, Yorkshire pudding with gravy, and Christmas pudding and custard for dessert — both of which I think are totally revolting and have blocked out the memory due to the trauma! There was always champagne and my father would drink beer, his favourite beverage of all time.
We did this on Christmas Eve with special family members.
On Christmas Day, the rest of the family would come over for leftovers (which they didn’t know where leftovers, cold meats and salads. We pulled crackers and wore the silly paper hats on both days. We hung around the pool, listened to some Christmas music, and played with the toys that we had unwrapped at some ungodly hour that morning.
You see Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere is hot, and depending on where you are, sometimes it’s the same temperature as that on the surface of the sun!
Once I moved to New Zealand, Christmas became a far smaller affair. My ex-partner and I did travel back to South Africa to be with family on two of the four Christmases that we spent there, settling for an intimate dinner on Christmas Day for the other two that we had to spend in the Land of the Long White Cloud.
As New Zealand’s weather vacillates like a drunk nun driving on a busy highway, one never knows whether you’re in for a hot or cold Christmas in Aotearoa.
As I love Christmas decorations, there was always a tree, tinsel, and festive knickknacks in the house— whether we stayed home or went abroad.
I was single when I moved to Australia and as such, became a Christmas orphan (bar the few times I made it back to South Africa), thereby being adopted by all and sundry for Christmas Day or Eve.
Australians spend Christmas much the same way that South Africans do. Some cook a roast dinner, some hang out at the beach, some around the pool. There are annual Christmas specials on TV that become tradition for some families, and gifts are usually unwrapped on Christmas morning with an exception or two the night before.
In 2017 I moved to Texas which is even less likely to be allowed in the “Northern Hemisphere Club” than SoCal. The oscillating weather patterns were severe and the first Christmas was spent in a friend’s apartment with a motley assortment of Texans around a makeshift fireplace — a streaming YouTube video of a fire on her TV —with everyone bringing a contribution to the pot luck Christmas dinner.
The few days over Christmas were balmy despite extreme cold leading up to, and following the merry season.
The next Christmas on the ranch was about the same and I tended to my horsey duties decked in a t-shirt and jeans.
Things changed when I moved to Canada at the end of 2019.
As a child I had great Christmases. My parents spoiled my sister and I terribly. We usually spent one Christmas at home and the next in the bush or at a beach house. There were plenty of presents, mountains of cheer, and festive Christmases were all I knew.
Having said all of that, I now believe that Christmas should be spent in the snow!
I have been utterly and thoroughly converted to the cold side.
The holiday cheer here is wonderful to behold. Some start decorating their homes with lights in late November, the snow begins to fall, elves find their way to shelves all over the Great White North, and Christmas movies hit home far more when “baby it’s cold outside!”
I don’t buy into the commercialization of Christmas. For me it’s about the feeling, and as strange as it is to admit having spent only 8% of my Christmases in cold weather (well, 12% if you count Texas), I have been converted like a sinner on their deathbed!
Bring on the snow, spiced mulled wine, songs of white Christmases, and pie… loads and loads of pie!
Dear Santa, I’ve been nice, bring on the merriment!
Please feel free to read about my food holiday traditions below.
