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An Antipodean Christmas Story
Carols under the Christmas tree
For the December Album of the Month discussion, brought to you by The Riff, we decided to change it up a little — we called for contributions of readers’ favourite Christmas/holiday songs. The discussion around those choices was lively and, as one would expect, quite personal.
I shared a story with the group — this piece elaborates on that story and includes some photos.
Great southern land
Christmas time for me as an Australian is a vastly different experience compared to the experiences of my northern hemisphere friends. There is no snow. In fact, it is not uncommon for us to be in the throes of the summer's first (or maybe third!) heatwave. I have experienced Christmas Days in central New South Wales when the temperature is around 39 degrees Celsius. That makes it a little odd to be singing carols or Christmas songs about snow!
Tradition in our suburb
Thirteen years ago, my family and I bought a home in Hawker, a suburb on the urban fringe of Canberra. The house was built in 1974. Back then, by Christmas, only a handful of houses had been constructed and occupied in the new suburb. The excited new homeowners and now neighbours gathered together for Christmas drinks under what was to be dubbed the Christmas tree.
The tree is a Yellow Box (Eucalyptus melliodora), one of the two dominant eucalypt species in the now critically endangered grassy woodland found on the southern tablelands in Australia. The tree is approximately 30 metres tall and estimated to be 350–400 years old.
With most houses built and occupied the following year, the residents decided to extend the gathering under the Christmas tree, turning the get-together into a Christmas celebration. The Dungowan Street carols tradition had begun.
In the ensuing years, the celebration got bigger and better:
- Strings of coloured light bulbs were donated and strung up by a local tree-climbing expert.
- Power for the lights was at various times…
