While families in Michigan enjoy icy white Christmases, families in Australia enjoy nice, warm summer holidays. The different type of weather that the Australians experience during their summer Christmas holiday lead to a different type of environment, thus altering their Christmas celebration. For one thing, Christmas stockings are not filled by Santa Claus when he visits the home. This is for a couple reasons; the first is that very few homes in Australia actually have fireplaces, which means very few homes in Australia have mantels to hang stockings on.

Most Christmas gifts are simply placed under the Christmas tree, according to western traditions. Other than the obvious weather difference, Australia has adopted a lot of the same customs as the western world when it comes to celebrating the Christmas holiday. Children receive a long holiday during this time, beginning in the first week of December and ending sometime around the last week of January.

A Christmas feast in Australia has the ability to take on many different forms. Many families in Australia are reputed to barbecue their Christmas dinner using an outdoor grill. Some people still have the classic turkey feast with cranberry sauce and all the trimmings, but it is just as common for families to grill their dinner; that is one of the perks of having Christmas at the peak of the summer season.

Since evergreen trees are not native to Australia, Australia is home to several large Christmas tree farms, not that Australian people are opposed to festively decorating a eucalyptus tree in the name of Christmas.

"Carols by Candlelight" is a Christmas tradition in which thousands of people gather around at a local park or school in the evening to sing Christmas carols by candle light. Carols by Candlelight is now celebrated around the world in cities large and small, but it first originated in Melbourne, Australia in 1937. It was the brain child of Australian radio announcer Norman Banks, who saw a woman listening to Christmas carols by herself by the light of a candle one night, and felt the desire to relieve people of the loneliness they may have felt in the past during the Christmas season when they don't have very many other people to celebrate the holiday with.

To the people in Australia, the program is an excellent representation of hope and love, and big things starting out as something small. In Australia, Carols by Candlelight usually takes place on Christmas Eve, but it has been known to take place on other evenings shortly before Christmas.

The Commonwealth of Australia is the only country in the world that is its own continent, and it is completely surrounded by the ocean. While people in Australia celebrate Christmas very similarly to people in the United States, there is one main difference: the weather. Australia is literally at the bottom of the world, so the seasons are reversed.