- A Christmas Card I received in 1998, it shows
- some of Australia's native animals dancing around
- a 'wattle' tree. Animals left to right :- Sugar Glider,
- Bilby, Koala, Eastern Quoll and Platypus.
- The Wattle tree is also native to Australia and blooms every spring and
- all through summer.
We still have hot dinners like the northern hemisphere, with all the trimmings, but most people opt for cold meats and salads or the big family BBQ. Seafood is also a major part of our Christmas fare. Lobster (Crayfish), crab, prawns (shrimp), muscles, oysters, octopus and all kinds of fish.
Just
Click HERE for all the recipes for a Great Aussie
Christmas
When
out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I
sprung from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away
to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore
open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The
moon on the breast of the new fallen snow
Gave
a luster of midday to objects below,
When,
what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But
a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer;
With
a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I
knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More
rapid than eagles his coursers they came.
And
he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
"Now,
Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On,
Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!
To
the top of the porch, to the top of the wall!
Now,
dash away, dash away, dash away all!"
As
dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When
they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So
up to the house-top the coursers they flew
With
a sleight full of toys, and St. Nicholas, too.
And
then in a twinkle, I heard on the roof
The
prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As
I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down
the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He
was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And
his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A
bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And
he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His
eyes how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His
cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry.
His
droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And
the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.
The
stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And
the smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath,
He
had a broad face and a little round belly
That
shook when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.
He
was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf.
And
I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A
wink of his eye, and a twist of his head,
Soon
gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He
spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And
filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And
laying a finger aside of his nose,
and
giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.
He
sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And
away they all flew like the down of a thistle,
But
I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight,
