We Wish You an Aussie Christmas

26 Dec

Written By

Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating today. Hope you're having a wonderful day wherever you are in the world. It was hot in Sydney today and we just spent a quiet day at home. We opened our presents in the afternoon - I got the new Stephen King which I'm looking forward to reading - and had a salad for dinner which was lovely. I must admit I'm feeling a little bit sick now though. I think I ate too much, although how you can feel bloated on a salad I have no idea. I haven't even been able to fit in any cake yet!

Christmas is a bit of a funny time for me. I'm not religious anymore but I still enjoy the feeling of the season, the spirit of goodwill and cheer in the air. For some reason I haven't really felt it that much this year though. We put up our tree a week late this year and that's usually when I get into the Christmas spirit, so that might be part of it, but there's also been a distinct lack of atmosphere this year. There have been fewer lights and decorations around and the shopping centres have been all but deserted, even on Christmas eve. I guess it shows how much people are struggling this year... 2010's been hard on a lot of people and I think everyone's feeling the squeeze. Hopefully 2011 will be a better year.

I guess to me Christmas is mostly about spending time with family these days and I felt lucky to be able to spend it with my parents today. It was a simple, quiet day and I think I'm starting to value those kind of days more and more as I get older. I know that a lot of people feel lonely and isolated at Christmas, having lost someone or not being able to be with their children, and I found myself thinking about them a lot today, and our troops overseas. I'd still really like to volunteer somewhere over Christmas at some stage. I didn't feel well enough to do it this year but maybe next year I'll be able to.

In any case I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas wherever you are in the world. To celebrate I thought I'd post another of my Aussie Christmas songs. I did an Aussie take on Jingle Bells last year and The Aussie 12 Days of Christmas in 2008, so I guess it's become something of a Christmas tradition on my blog now!

This year I thought I'd do We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Originally I wanted to do Frosty the Snowman but I couldn't work out a way to make it sound very Australian - I mean, it's not like we get much snow! We Wish You a Merry Christmas was a little easier and it's also one of my favourite songs at this time of year. I'll try to do Frosty next year if I can.

I hope you enjoy it. And Merry Christmas. ;)