Baby75

Hello all

hope some one can help how do you cope with christmas here only for my kids ild rather ignore it and let it pass me by.

I know im not here very long 5 months but I knew before i got off the plane it was all wrong and we are going home but looks like it will be june as we have a lot of saving to do. dont want to go home and have nothing

Im going off track how do I get past christmas with out sitting and crying for the whole lot of it and tips or advice would be great

Thanks

Fleaflyfloflum

Hi Baby

We are "lucky" that we dont have kids with us here, so we literally do ignore christmas. As far as we are concerned it doesnt exist. OH works as he gets lots of extra money and i just hole up indoors and wait for it to go away.

Of course, for you guys, you have to do it for the kids. I would say make it it very special for them. If you are going home mid next year, this might well be their one and only hot christmas so how about trying to make a novelty of it?
Just do the stereotypical Aussie christmas i suppose. Go to the beach woth santa hats on (not that aussies tend to do that, its more the brit holiday makers )
Have a beach picnic maybe? Take lots of pics and in years to come you can look back at your hot christmas!

Baby75

Ill be trying my best to make it a good one for the kids alright must ask them what they would like to do.

I swear though the thought of putting up a tree

quoll

You'll be fine, even if the Aussie Christmas trees arent "real" Christmas trees. We used to have a proper tree in a pot but it didnt like being bonsaied and died after about 10 years, poor little thing!

Get yourself an el cheapo plastic tree - much easier to handle and fewer pine needles all over the floor.

We dont have kids at home any more so we do tend to just ignore it these days unless we go to the inlaws (quite likely) so we do have to at least appear to be a bit festive - imagine a mix of SDA vegetarians, paleo eaters and some nonedescipt omnivores. Makes for an interesting experience. Bah humbug, I reckon - Scrooge rules!

Tr1boy

After enduring 15 of these things, I vowed 4 yrs ago i'd never spend another in Oz, and haven't since, and this year will be no different. Thankfully it will be our last 'here' anyway

backagen

You've only been here 5 months and this will be your first and only xmas here by the sound of it, so really it's not as big a deal as you might think.

I do understand to some extent the feeling that Christmas here isn't right, especially if most of your family is in UK and you're used to spending it with them.

However you have your kids to think about, and I would have thought having kids around, it still should not be too hard to make xmas fun. It won't be the same as it would in UK obviously, but it's the only one you will have here so try not to let it bother you that much, and try to relax and enjoy it as much as possible, for your childrens sake!

It's perfectly possible to get all the usual trimmings in Queensland (decorations, food etc). There's a lot of free local community events such as pageants / parades and carols by candlelight, and honestly these are well worth going to. Your kids will love them, and if you allow yourself to, you just might too!

You do get a genuine sense of community and Christmas spirit at these events, even if you are thousands of miles from home and family. That's a fact, so just enjoy!

On Christmas day, go indoors, turn the aircon on to it's coldest setting, put the fire on in the living room (or light it if you're lucky enough to have a real fire) and enjoy a proper Christmas dinner just like you would at home!

One final tip, make sure you hire some decent Christmassy DVDs in advance, because there's usually only a few Christmassy things on TV, and after Christmas day you can forget it.

That's the one thing I hate most about xmas here (apart from not being with the family of course), the way Australians act as if Christmas starts in September, but ENDS on Christmas day!

Literally on 26th December, or sometimes even late on Christmas day itself, you are bombarded by adverts for "Post Christmas sales" and messages that "Now Christmas is over at last......", and you go in the shops and all the decorations are down already. That can be quite depressing.

As I said though, get some good Christmas DVDs and don't watch "live" TV except obviously for the obligatory speech from mad lizzie!

Seasons Greetings!

Merseygirl

Just treat your only Aussie Christmas purely as a novelty. Do all the things you would normally do as a family unit, put the tree up, play some Christmas music, watch festive DVD's, have the usual Christmas dinner. If your children are young then they will enjoy Christmas no matter what, they will still enjoy opening their presents and seeing the Christmas tree lit up, so hopefully some of that vibe will rub off on you. If it helps, close the curtains to block out the summer sun....try and make the best of it, you sure will appreciate next Christmas in the UK because of this experience

backagen

Hey you never know, you might get lucky. Admittedly it hasn't happened since 1984, but surely that means it must be due to happen again!!!
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=jkfW63DNN5I

Marmalade

Some very good ideas here. Just see it is a novelty for the kids sake, and have fun with it. It will be something to look back on in years to come and you will have some good memories of how you had a "novelty" Christmas in Oz.

Personally I don't put up any decorations for Christmas here, as I'm always in Scotland for Christmas, but this year I might be here

Still not going to put up a tree, I haven't in 21 years, so it's not going to change now...........off to check flights home and hope I can get a bargain

islandergirl

Good tip about stocking up on dvds, the telly here is extra shite at Christmas.
And take the kids to Carols by Candlelight.

Tradition has it here that on Boxing Day you go to the movies, that's when a lot of the new films open, and the sales start so Christmas itself does end really on Christmas night - if you can't beat them you might as well join them.

USAGypsies

I totally hear you. Ignore Christmas if it makes it easier on you. We are in the same boat as far as having to save before returning home. We just couldn't do it to ourselves (we rushed home once before and had to ping pong back because it wasn't working out). We feel the extra time spent here saving will not only be something to feel proud about but will give us a better chance of making our return successful. Although it's a drag now, and on some days a torture, we know we will be grateful that we did take our time to save money once we are back home. We can't ignore Christmas as we have 3 kiddies but I've always felt that Christmas in America is so short lived and under celebrated anyway compared to Christmas & Boxing day in the UK.
Open a bottle of bubbly on New Years Eve, breath in the bubbles and toast 2009 as she arrives at your doorstep - '2009, The year you go home'. I'll raise one with ya'!

Marmalade

It looks like I'll be here in America too one last Christmas and New Year, so I'll raise my glass on Auld Year's Night too

cricket1again

My first Christmas here was both horrible and funny. It was horrible because I didn't want to be here and funny because all our furniture and other stuff was still in the container on a ship somewhere so all we had in the lounge was a lone Christmas tree and a few hanging decorations. I still laugh at the photos.

As part of my work as a designer, I had always designed Christmas decorations but I couldn't find the motivation (or the materials) to get going. Suffice to say the first year was a miserable Christmas.

But.........you do have a choice. You can either be miserable and end up a total wet blanket or you can do your best and try to get into the swing of things.

I love cooking and friends coming over so I bought some Christmas food magazines. (The Australian cookery magazines are actually very good.) Then i planned a menu and I invited my friends (who never cook) and we had a ball. Probably one of the best Christmases ever.
I soaked up the day with nice food, DVD's, wine & lots of people coming and going. I didn't try to compete with an English Christmas, I just made the day special for friends and in the end I had a good day too.

It's at these times that it helps to count all your blessings, hug all those you love and that you have near you and cherish being together. So far all my Christmasses have been spent with my kids being in the UK and me being over here without them.

Baby75

I hope you get to go home soon

Ill diffidently raise a glass to that, 2009 the year we go home and Ive had a bit of good news today we are going home in february fingers crossed (just in case something goes wrong) we had money coming to us and we were going to use it to move to Brisbane, my friend asked me if i was excited and when i thought about it I'm not at all dreading it it felt like we were going backwards to move forwards and when we sat down and talked about it, it makes more sense to book tickets and save money till we go home so I will be here for Christmas but Ill just make the most of it esp for the kids it will be hard but ive something to look forward to now

now all i need to do is find a holiday let till february as we are in our friends house and they have turned in to robbing B#####ds its been so stressful only good thing is kept my mind off the home sickness. its amazing how people show their true colours and friends you though were good friends turn out to be horrible

any way thank you all so much for your replies Ill be taking some of those tips on board esp dvd

Millie11

Hi Baby

Are you going home? I knew you were homesick but not that all had be arranged to go home. I was on the jan visa thread with you. Arrived in july but would also love to go home