Tis the season to spread joy, not germs. How will you be spending COVIDmas?
The bells are ringing, people are singing how will we celebrate this year? 2020, what a time to be alive… Fear not though, now that December is around the corner restrictions and some joy is coming to top off this hellish ride of a year. It’s hard to believe we’ve made it this far, but honestly I haven’t been this excited for the holiday festivities since I was a kiddo.
It looks like here in AUS, we will be fortunate enough to have some semblance of a normal Christmas this year. The borders between states have started to reopen and NSW has finally made the 28 day mark clear of any mystery cases, which means we hope to soon see Queensland letting the rest of the country back in.
Since this year the holiday season will be a little bit different for everyone, I thought I’d make a poll to see how our diploma class will be celebrating the festivities this year.
The Tree
For those households who celebrate Christmas, it’s the time to chuck on the carols and untangle those lights to put up the annual tree. Anyone else having to hunt for that dusty old box and bag o’ ball balls?
Personally I procrastinate both putting up and taking down the tree. Although I do aim to get it done some point in the early days of December, which most also seemed to agree with.
Fa la la la la
I’ve recently discovered how I can merge my love for punk rock with Christmas Carols… Punk goes Christmas is a thing that exists, go search Spotify right now. I dare you.
Please feel free to comment what your favourite carol is. I have to say I am currently frothing the Last Christmas cover by Loveless. Again, I was not lying when I say there are punk rock Christmas Carols!
Does Santa Have His Shorts?
Please tell me you remember that Hi-5 song, but honestly what do you wear during a sweltering Aussie Chrissy?
Last year I was sadistic enough to wear jeans to lunch… Don’t ask me, I have no idea why either.
Chuck A Shrimp On The Barbie?
Is it an Aussie Christmas without a plethora of prawns? Aside from the vegos, those deadly allergic to shellfish and people who have different cultural customers that is.
Look, not going to lie. I will choose seafood and antipasto over a roast 100% of the time. Unless I eventually experience a white Christmas in a wintery wonderland somewhere, I will be embracing my European roots munching on a selection of salami and cheese. Then later to be followed by all the seafood you could possibly think of, I am now quite excited to perfect my cheese board this year.
Alright Who’s Hosting This Year?
I know many families have the annual Christmas venue bickering match trying to coordinate the gang together, but the festive season looks different for everyone. Sometimes your friends can be your real chosen family or you may not really celebrate with anyone outside your household at all.
Over the years my own definition of family has changed a lot and I’ve spent Christmas with many different variations and combinations of that. This year I am also excited to be celebrating with those I love outside of my blood related family. I will be able to be with my friends who are also my family to me.
Popcorn and Candy Canes
How can we forget about Christmas movies!? So I had a little ask around to see what were some popular picks for festive movies and shockingly the most popular option was… ELF. Look I understand Elf is a classic movie, but I just can’t do it. The other popular titles included Polar Express, Home Alone and of course The Grinch.
A True Betrayal Of Trust
Now I’m sorry if you didn’t already know about this, but Santa is not real. Yes it’s shocking, even heart breaking. All these years our parents lied to us. Those cookies and milk left out were nothing but a late night snack for them. Majority of those who responded to my survey said that they found out by catching their parents in the act or by finding the presents wrapped before Christmas day.
How I found out was when one afternoon a friend of mine on the bus had said to me that Santa simply wasn’t real. I argued appalled by such a comment asked how then do the presents get there? He just plainly told me that it had been mum sneaking around in the night all those years. Yes, that time you heard rummaging from the living room on Christmas eve was not in fact a bearded man with flying reindeer. It was just my poor sleep deprived mother, who’d been waiting for hours for my adrenaline fuel child excitement to die down enough for me to finally sleep.
I later confronted mum about this deeply upsetting allegation my friend had told me. She then decided to break the illusion to my little 8 year old self that Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy in fact, were not real. Now I was a dramatic child to say the least and some may argue still a dramatic young adult… But I ran and locked myself in my room to proceed to cry on my bed for a solid two hours. I also refused to let my mum in or talk to her for that whole time until I finally got over myself and accepted the truth.
Covidmas
Now that our world has started to open back up to us and it’s a little safer in Australia, Christmas is something that can be looked forward to. I have no been this excited to spend time with loved ones since I was a little kid. As I grew up throughout my high school years and my family dynamic got a little rock, I found myself dreading the holiday season. Now after the year that has been 2020, I’ve learnt to love and care much deeply about those I have in my life and I can’t wait to do nothing but celebrate that with them over the festive times.
I hope that you can find some joy this year in wrapping up a chaotic time for us all. I know Christmas, may be difficult for some and exciting for others. I just encourage you to find who and what brings you joy and reach out to those people to celebrate however you like. It doesn’t matter if you don’t celebrate Christmas and have other or no cultural/religious occasions, just take this up coming summer and public holidays to do what’s best for you!
If you want to let me know what you’re doing this year for xmas take the poll yourself!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9WR8PYW
P.s I am really really obsessed with the punk rock Carols, as I keep mentioning. So I made a playlist if you are interested.
