Boxing Day and Leaving Hobart

Boxing Day, December 26th, is a national holiday here in Australia. It's not celebrated very much in the USA. I think it's reserved more for British Commonwealth countries where tradition would have “Christmas boxes” or presents (pressies, in Oz) given to servants the day after Christmas (because, of course, they had to work on Christmas Day). Many servants also had the day after Christmas off to spend time with their own families.

Here it seems Boxing Day allows an extension of the Christmas holiday and some recovery time before New Year's celebrations. Especially with Christmas being on a Tuesday this year, many folks also have Monday off and everyone has a long, long weekend. Time to get away on a holiday or spend more time with friends and family. If you're in the UK, perhaps you might go on a fox hunt. Sports and after- Christmas-sales shopping also seem to be high on the activities list for this holiday.

On the nautical side, today was also the start of the 67th Sydney-Hobart race. Boxing Day last year, we were at Sydney Heads on a friend's boat as the race participants flew past on their way to Hobart. This year, we had to leave the Elizabeth Street Pier in anticipation of the race arrivals though it won't be for a couple more days. Spirits will be high and from what we've heard, there will be a lot of celebrating going on when the boats arrive … winners or not.

We're not alone, by the way. Every boat in the inner harbor, even folks with permanent berths, must vacate by 5pm on Boxing Day to allow the arriving boats a place to berth after their arduous passage. In fact, many boats left before Christmas and we had lots of room to ourselves yesterday.

As for us, we've been busy with mundane sorts of things. We did the last of our provisioning, defrosted the freezer, did the laundry, equalized the batteries, made yogurt and granola, filled the water tanks and generally did everything possible to use the dock water and dock power before heading out. We have returned to our anchorage spot just north of the Tasman Bridge in Cornelian Bay. It's about a 3km jaunt into town along the foreshore walk, so we'll still have a chance to see the arriving boats without being in the way or in the middle of all the commotion.

An Aussie Christmas

This will be our second Christmas celebrated in Australia. Last year, John and Shawn on Active Transport spent the holiday aboard with us in Sydney. This year they're in South Africa and we're in Hobart. Unlike Australians who realize that Christmas is a summer holiday down under, we're still northern hemisphere traditionalists and it's hard to dispel old ways of thinking that have been ingrained for decades. We're not hoping for snow or anything, but we like the big midday turkey feast and presents under the tree ... I mean, the mast, on Christmas morning.

Most Australians we know tend to celebrate the holiday at the beach with a picnic or have a big outdoor barbie. Several folks from the marina have taken off for a week or two to go sailing or camping over the holidays. It's summertime ... outdoor activities seem the right thing to do. We're told, it has become traditional for international visitors who are in Sydney at Christmas to go to Bondi Beach where up to 40,000 people visit on Christmas Day. Wouldn't that be a fun experience? (NOT!)

Christmas shopping is done in shorts and t-shirts instead of all bundled up in parkas, mittens and snow boots. Though I've seen poinsettias, the local red proteas or the native Christmas Bush with its bright red flowers, seem more appropriate. I've seen artificial trees, but no lots full of real Christmas trees for sale. Santa might be just as likely to arrive at the beach on a surfboard or in a dinghy as in a sleigh … and the white boomers readily replaced the tired reindeer without hesitation for Santa's inland Australian run last night … or so we heard.

Perhaps if we were from California or Florida, the beach thing would be appealing. But we're not...we're from cold and snow country and being at the beach on Christmas … well, it's just not right! We should be shoveling snow or making snowmen or snow forts...having snowballs fights, but definitely not laying on a beach. It was cool and overcast today in Hobart. Not a good beach day at all … but not good for snowballs either.

So, how did we celebrate Christmas? We planned to go to midnight service at St. David's Cathedral, but it was cold, dark, windy and misty at 11pm and we were already in bed. So much for that plan.

We were up early this morning drinking mimosas (champagne and OJ) and singing Christmas songs while getting the turkey stuffed and in the oven for our traditional afternoon feast. We gratefully declined offers made by friends and opted to spend Christmas with just the two of us this year. We like each others' company a lot plus more leftover turkey for the crew.

We cooked and chatted and opened our presents. We had cinnamon coffee cake for breakfast...washed down with yet more mimosas. We watched a romantic movie (Love, Actually) and it was time to eat. The turkey was roasted to perfection. The aroma had driven us crazy for hours. The table was set with our best linen and china (as if!). Hours of preparation led to a leisurely, sumptuous dinner. Everything was delicious including the blueberry/raspberry crisp for dessert (a close second to cranberry pudding). A fine day celebrating what we love most … each other.

We'll Skype our family in the States and Brennan and Hannah in Rome tomorrow when they have their holiday celebration.

Wishing you and yours a happy Christmas from Nine of Cups.

Carols by Candlelight

We saw a banner mounted above the entrance to St. David's Park one day: Carols by Candlelight … 15 and 16 December...Free tickets. Didn't that just make my heart stop? I googled to find out more and sure enough, they were handing out free entry tickets at the info booth on Elizabeth Street Mall.

Reading up a bit on this Australian Christmas tradition, I learned that it seems to have originated in southeastern Australia in the 19th century. According to Wiki, one of the earliest origins of this tradition began in the 19th century, when Cornish miners in Moonta, South Australia would gather on Christmas Eve to sing carols, their mining hats aglow with candles stuck to the brims. It's popular throughout Australia now, but especially so in Melbourne where it's even televised on Christmas Eve. The tradition, which has since spread around the world, gathers people together at the holidays in public venues to sing carols by candlelight. We saw it as an opportunity to congregate with the community and enjoy some Christmas spirit.

We read that there had been quite an issue concerning this year's Candlelight celebration in Hobart. The City Council had cut the budget substantially and moved the venue from Sandy Bay. St. David's Park could only accommodate half the number of people who had attended last year. I can understand the frustration of those who had worked hard to insure a big turnout in previous years, only to have their efforts thwarted by diminished budgets and a significantly smaller venue. We felt a bit guilty about using two tickets that might have been more appropriately given to locals who wanted to attend. We waited till near the end of the doling out of tickets, reasoning if people really wanted to attend, they'd snatch up the tickets early.

This year's Carols by Candlelight in Hobart was in its 63rd year, first occurring on 24 December 1949. The on-line information told us we could bring blankets and cushions, small amounts of wine/alcohol, a raincoat (if you bring it, you won't need it) and, of course, our best singing voices and Christmas spirit. The spirit wouldn't be hard, the voices? I didn't think they'd throw us out, but perhaps we wouldn't sing as loudly as we do when we're singing karaoke on the boat. We were advised not to bring pets, tents, eskies (coolers), large umbrellas or fireworks. Good, we had none of these things. No worries.

The day was windy, raw and rainy and we wondered how wet and uncomfortable it would be sitting on the cold ground to watch the festivities. We had planned to take a bottle of wine to share, but it was so chilly, we took a thermos of hot chocolate instead. It may be summer here, but it's still Tasmania. We found a good place to lay our plastic tarp and a blanket on top. I brought an extra blanket to snuggle up in. We bought candles and I couldn't help but think of the candlelight vigils being held all around the US now, not in celebration of Christmas, but rather in remembrance of the children and adults recently slain in Newtown, Connecticut. Sad thoughts don't mingle well with Christmas cheer.

The 90 minute program was small-townish and fun. The Lord Mayor of Hobart welcomed us. Local entertainers led us in song accompanied by the Hobart City Band and the Ogilvie High Concert Choir. Midst a sea of red Santa hats and reindeer antlers, we waited for the sky to darken to light our candles. It doesn't get dark here till well after 9pm now.

We knew most of the lyrics, but the tunes were significantly different for some songs. I know two versions of Away in a Manger, but the version they played wasn't close to either of them. We sang traditonal carols like Deck the Halls and more modern songs like Rudolph and White Christmas. It didn't seem to bother anyone that a “white Christmas” is neither expected nor dreamed of here. I looked around; everyone seemed to know all the lyrics.

Santa showed up. He was a bit frazzled being so close to Christmas with lots of work still to be done. His reindeer were “having a feed on the Domain lawns”, he said. He also explained that the hot Australian weather (farther north, for sure) was tough on the reindeer. When he makes his Australia run, he uses white boomers...big white kangaroos, the subject of a uniquely Aussie Christmas song.

We sipped our hot chocolate, snuggled up and enjoyed the evening. We were hoarse from singing when we left St. David's Park in good spirits and ready for Christmas.