Christmas Around the World

Blog Scavenger Hunt!

Welcome to our Christmas Scavenger Hunt! If this is your first post, the rules are simple:

• The Scavenger Hunt is open from December 5^th at 9:00 am EST to December 15^th at 11:59 pm EST.
• Visit all 4 participating websites.
• On each website, collect the clue at the bottom of the page and click the link to the next website.

Once you’ve collected all of the clues, go to njrayne.com/2023-christmas and insert the clue as the password to collect your prize! (in order (stop 1-4), all lowercase, no full stops, no spaces.)

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For my part of this hunt, I was thinking of writing a short story about Christmas in Australia. But I had a lot of half-ideas, and so I decided to make a list instead.

See, for those lucky Northern Hemisphererians who enjoy a white Christmas with snug ginger bread and warm Santa and cosy egg nog… that is what Australian Christmas aspires to be. But we have the challenge that December is summer. So egg nog and Santa and ginger bread… and scorching heat.

I’ve put some experiences together in a play on the advent calendar, to point out the strange moments, and the nice ones too. 🙂 If you’re Australian, I hope you can relate to them. And if not, maybe you’ll find it entertaining! I’ve put some extra explanations for things that might be confusing.

Merry Christmas!

An Aussie Advent Calendar

1. It’s December now, so the Christmas tree is now allowed to go up. There’s a plastic pine tree in the depths of your storage, or if you really want, you can get a real one from a farm. In the end you give up and use a scraggly potted tree and say it’s good enough.

Explanation:

I assume this happens all around the Christmas-celebrating world: sometimes you just don’t have a fresh pine tree on hand :D.

2. Start shopping for presents. Wonder afresh how the shopping centre Santa bears the heat in his woolly North Pole gear.

3. Start getting annoyed at the Christmas songs at the shops, cafes, radio, e v e r y w h e r e. Reflect that it is still 21 days until Christmas, and therefore, 21 more days of Mariah Carey. 

4. Find the cutest every illustrations of Australian animals in Christmas outfits and decide that if Australia ever developed its own flavour of Christmas folklore (that wasn’t borrowed from the Northern Hemisphere), it would be the cutest by far.

5. “I can’t believe it’s December already! Where has the year gone?” 

6. The first day of the heatwave and you already can’t stand the heat. The world stops and everyone’s a bit cranky from being baked alive, but at the same time, it’s perfect weather for cracking open the mango and watermelon. (School kids bring 50c for Zooper Doopers at lunch time.)

Explanation:

Oof where to begin in explaining this one 😅. First off, yes, Melburnians are dramatic when it comes to weather. To anyone from the more Northern (=hotter) parts of Australia, I KNOW, WE’RE WIMPS. Okay. As to the Zooper Doopers… When I was in school, if the weather was over 30^oC (= 86^oF), you could bring 50c to school and buy a Zooper Dooper, which is like frozen cordial. It’s a brand of popsicle that’s become the name for the item.)

7. The second day of the heatwave and you’re getting takeaway for dinner because it’s too hot to turn the oven or stove on. 

8. The third day of the heatwave and THE COOL CHANGE HAS HIT EVERYONE OPEN THE WINDOWS AND LET THE BREEZE IN NOW CLOSE THEM QUICK BEFORE THE STORM HITS 

Explanation:

Melbourne is known for having “four seasons in a day” and when we have a heatwave, the temperature can drop dramatically. Once it went from 40deg to 20deg in about an hour. So while the house is still hot and stuffy, the temperature outside is comfortable and cool, and we open all the doors and windows to let the breeze in. (Until the storm hits.)

9. Bruh why is it so cold it’s literally december 

Explanation:

Yeah we’ll always find a way to complain about the weather.

10. Receive a gingerbread house from a good friend and feel guilty eating such a beautiful creation. (But it tastes so good! And there’s just so much of it!) 

11. Remember that “Bucko and Champs” counts as Christmas music (and isn’t what the shops are playing relentlessly), and give it a listen again. Die inside while also feeling more alive than you have all year. Reflect that you learned “We Three Kings” from them first, and how that has shaped you as a person. 😬

Explanation:

I don’t know how to explain Bucko and Champs, much less their We Three Kings… arrangement?

I did learn their version before I ever heard the original, and I think it had a lasting effect on my sense of humour. These albums are, I think, the closest Australia has come to developing its own Christmas folklore. To be fair, it’s chaos.

(Side note: Colin Buchanan (Bucko) wrote an excellent kids’ song called Christ the King of Christmas, that I force the kids at church to sing every Christmas.)

12. Watch the cricket and complain about the Australian team. And the other team. (No matter how bad the Aussies are, the others are necessarily worse.)

13. Feel inspired, play cricket in the backyard with the neighbourhood kids and lose two balls over the fence. (Bad luck; six and out.)

Explanation:

Cricket is meant to be played at a special oval, so someone came up with “Backyard cricket rules”, adapting the game to be played in a smaller space, with fewer people. Part of that is that if you hit the ball out of bounds (eg over the fence or onto the roof), you get six runs to add to your count, but you’re also out for the innings. (And very unpopular.) Other rules include “tippidy” (if you hit the ball, you have to run), and “one hand one bounce” (a controversial way of getting someone out by catching the ball with one hand, before it bounces twice).

14. Enjoy a cold ginger beer on a cooling summer night around the neighbour’s pool. The smell of the burning mosquito coils bring back way too many memories of similar nights. (And keep the mozzies away.)

Explanation:

Are mozzie coils a thing in the rest of the world? They have a distinct smell, and to me, it’s the smell of summer nights with family, the warm-but-not-oppressive kind, where you all go outside and enjoy the cool, long evening.

15. Local Carols by Candlelight! The carols start at 6pm, and the sun sets at 9pm, so the name feels like false advertising. The community band and singers aren’t great (except for that one high-schooler who blows everyone away) but you end up having a good time anyway. And somehow, it’s still a bit chilly, even in the middle of summer. 

16. Schools finish for the year! Be surprised by all the school kids out on the streets at 2pm instead of 3pm. 

17. There’s a mozzie in your room at night. You debate whether it will be less comfortable to keep all exposed skin under the sheets, or wake up covered in bites. You opt for the former, but somehow still wake up with the latter.

18. One of the cricket balls has been thrown back over the fence! Time for another game. Narrowly avoid breaking a window (still counts as a six!) 

Explanation:

Mum might get cranky at the close calls, but it’s only game over if the window breaks.

19. Watch a Hallmark film and remember just how bad they actually are. (Are they getting worse??) Watch three more because it’s too hot to sleep. And… they’re a tad addictive.

20. Drive around and have a squiz at all the Christmas decorations the neighbours have put up! Note that one blown-up Santa seems to have dislocated some limbs as he deflated. Find that one neighbour who went all out and spend some time enjoying their hard work. 

21. Work’s finished for the year! *throws confetti* You bring along your Santa hat to the party, which goes nicely with your shorts and t-shirt. You both receive and gift a waterproof speaker from Typo at the Kris Kringle.  

Explanation:

At every Kris Kringle (= Secret Santa), there seems to be a waterproof shower speaker or two. Typo just have the advantage of making them look interesting.

22. Start buying and preparing food for the big day (along with the rest of the country 😭). Tell yourself that you don’t need to buy a pavlova base–you’ll try making it yourself this year. 

Explanation:

The pavlova is an esteemed Australian dessert (*sits on protesting New Zealanders*) that is essentially a giant meringue topped with whipped cream and summer fruit. They’re notoriously tricky to make (involving lots of whipping and hope). The shopping centres sell pavlova bases (without the cream and fruit), which is easier, to prepare but not as nice as a proper home-made one. (I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this, but there is a recipe included in the scavenger hunt prize, if you’d like to try some heaven on earth.)

23. Decide to go to the shopping centre because as least there will be proper air conditioning. Immediately regret said decision (at least the car is air conditioned. You’ll be in there for a while as you look for a parking spot 😭.)

24. Buy the most perishable foods for Christmas Day (ie prawns). Watch the Carols by Candlelight in Sydney, then in Melbourne, and decide that Melbourne was better. As it always is.

Explanation:

Lots of Australians eat seafood on Christmas day, as well as barbecue (of course). Other traditional Australian foods include the Choc Ripple Cake (made of cookies and cream that soaks into the cookies overnight) and ginger beer (at least in my family).

(Bonus 25: you did not make the pavlova.)

Explanation:

But Auntie Brenda did.

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This is Stop 4 on the scavenger hunt, and the all-important clue is: ADVENT

Next stop is the USA with N. J. Rayne!

Once you’ve collected all of the clues, go to njrayne.com/2023-christmas and insert the clue as the password to collect your prize! (in order by stop number (1-4), all lowercase, no period, no spaces.)

Link broken? Click here to view all of the stops on the scavenger hunt.

Still not working? Email njrayne@njrayne.com for assistance!

Is this your first time here? Welcome!

If you enjoyed this post and love learning about cultures from around the world, I’d love to invite you to join the Campfire–a group of story-lovers who learn about a different legend or folktale. Every two weeks, I send an email with a new story, and together we go all around the world, sharing folklore by the fireside to anyone who’ll hear!

You can join us by clicking here! (And you can unsubscribe at any time.)

Please note that we’re having a break until after Christmas and will probably start up again in January <3.

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What’s a quirky Christmas tradition in your family or country? What was your favourite part?