Winter without Christmas in Australia.

[Maisypaws]

I dislike the dark evenings and cold, wet weather. If I didn’t have Christmas brightening up the dark days, I think I would be so depressed. The Aussies have Christmas in the summer, so I hate to imagine what winter must be like.

Any insight from people who’ve lived there? Do they put up twinkly lights and do cosy wintery things in July / August, just without it being Christmas? How do they cheer themselves up when Spring is still a long way away?

Winter in Australia is very different to UK winters. For a start it doesn’t drag on indefinitely! The days are often bright and crisp and it’s not dark at 3 in the afternoon.
Point being that it doesn’t bring the same level of despair that requires brightening by fairy lights and festive cheer!

What on earth do you do in January and February? (Months I much prefer precisely because of the lack of Christmas there .)

Winter without Christmas is fine because it doesn't get dark ridiculously early like it does here and it's not freezing, it's just cold.

I wasn't fond of winter because our house was 11 degrees no matter what we did. It was a modern house but the heaters just blow hot air and I just think ours was not insulated properly. And the open plan aspect makes it harder to keep warm. We had to drawing pin fleece blankets over the dc's bedroom (single glazed) windows to stop it getting even colder.

Christmas in the summer is nice, just different. We put fairy lights on the tree and it wasn't until we went back to the uk that I realised my dc didn't know that because it was never dark when they saw the tree.

Well, I feel miserable! But at least Spring is round the corner and the clocks go forward in March, so it doesn’t last too long.

Interesting that it doesn’t get as dark in Australian winter. I imagine that must make a big difference.

I’m from Nz where it does get properly cold. The biggest difference is that while days are shorter it doesn’t get dark as early as in the uk. That was massive shock when moving to uk that it got dark ridiculously early. I never ever came home from after school activities in the dark for months like my poor dc have to.

I used to get through winter (and my family in Nz still do) by popping up the ski field for a day skiing at the weekend and flying to Queensland in Australia for some sun!

I spent May - July near Sydney one year when I was a student, so their midwinter. It was about 15-18 degrees most days, felt like our spring and just got dark at 5pm! Definitely didn't feel like the drudgery of an English winter

Not being funny OP but you should look at a world map or atlas, look for the equator and note the distance of both Australia and the UK from it.

An Australian winter is nothing like a UK winter. I lived in Brisbane in winter and it was like a really good spring to me, some days you could comfortably wear a T-shirt out and about.

As an Australian who moved to the UK, I finally understand Christmas and think it's a lovely holiday now, after feeling quite grinchy about it in Australia for so many years.

I think it's a great shame that Australia misses out on proper seasonal celebrations like Christmas, easter and Halloween.

Also, Australia spans multiple climatic zones, and some areas do experience a proper winter. By about mid-July my parents endlessly complain about the gloomy weather every time I speak to them on the phone, and it would be nice if they had a winter celebration to usher in some cheer.

In New Zealand, Mid Winter Christmas has become quite popular. Also, doesn't get dark so early, nor light so late.

Winter clothes in Queensland = slightly thicker T shirt (although I was there one July and when we visited my aunt it was chilly enough that she had the woodburner stove on). Prob more applicable to the far north, isn't the temperature variation in Cairns about 10 degrees between summer and winter?

Aus is big so winter in the southern most part is different, and does get dark quite early

I prefer long days in summer anyway which obviously means those long nights

Christmas in July is a thing. Also, the days in winter are gorgeous (in Sydney, anyway). Cool , crisp mornings that develop into warm, bright days. The light is totally different too. I loved winter days when we lived in NSW.

Well I'm not in Aus, but in SA, and no, we don't put up twinkly lights in winter, in June / July. I have some on my tree now though.

It gets dark about 6pm in winter as we don't change the clocks like you do (that was the most bizarre thing I had ever heard of when I first experienced it).

Winter is 3 months, June, July, August. 1 sept is spring day and the weather mostly starts getting nice again then.

We don't have central heating in our homes so it's just a case of keeping warm at night, it usually low to mid teen temps in the day. Nights can plummet to zero at times.

Now is the long 6 weeks holiday for the schools, so it works out well for holiday time and when the DC go back to school in Jan, they start their new year then.

I'm in Melbourne, and yes Christmas in July is a thing, with mince pies and turkey in the shops. The twinkly lights is a definitely proper Christmas thing here, taken very seriously by quite a number of people.

Back to winter, there's a light festival in August, plus the International Comedy Festival and Writer's Festival, so lots going (at a cost) to pass the time.

Agree that in general, the days are lighter in the sense of not being overcast (bar the terrible 20222 winter) so you have more sunny days to lift the mood. Thinking of the cold, you'd wear much the same clothes in Melbourne as in London.

I think it's a great shame that Australia misses out on proper seasonal celebrations like Christmas, easter and Halloween

Save your pity, as Christmas and Easter are religious celebrations -the whole place shuts down on Good Friday. People in Australia hobble along without too much repining. As for Hallowe'en, for me now it's synonymous with a long sunny evening crowded with kids trick or treating.

Waves at savoycabbage 🖐

I’m finding these replies so interesting, thanks everyone! Christmas in the southern hemisphere is being added to my bucket list!

My feelings exactly! I'd love to do a proper northern hemisphere Christmas, but Christmas here in Australia just annoys the crap out of me.

Some places - restaurants, pubs etc - do Christmas in July things. Be nice to do that up in the Alps where there's snow.

I lived in southern Queensland (inland from the Sunshine Coast) for a couple of years and the minute temperatures dropped below 20C everyone had their wood fires burning!

Errrrrr. Their winters are not cold…..

Depends where you are in our enormous continent. Queensland? Definitely not. Tasmania? Oh yes.

I lived in Australia for a year and never experienced anything like a British winter - although I spent their winter in North Queensland so possibly not a fair comparison! They don't have our long evenings at any point in the year though - never light after 7pm which was something I missed. I love the super long days in a UK summer.

There is quite a big ski industry in Australia. It's the only place I've been where we needed snow tyres.

@Titsywoo ah, but that's Queensland, in the tropics. Twilight isn't a thing that close to the equator, or even in southern Queensland where I lived for a while. We do have longer evenings in the south - I'm in southern Victoria now and it won't be sunset till after 8.30 tonight (or 7.30 in real time).

This is a photo from when I went for a walk in the winter in Brisbane. Obviously there is a huge variation as the country is huge, but I have always lived in South East Queensland where winters are bright and sunny. You don’t get the same overcast, freezing drizzly days on end that you do in the UK. It is cold in the mornings and evenings but you can sit out in the sun from 10-3 and warm up.