Festive traditions from warmer climates you should know about

There is a choir singing under twinkly lights. I’m sipping on Glühwein and browsing ornaments of snow-covered scenes. Everyone is wearing shorts, and someone is fanning themselves while their child begs for another ice cream. This Christmas market moment might seem incongruous to many, but for the southern hemisphere, where the festive season is equal to summer, these scenes are how it’s always been.

Growing up in a South African community with strong German heritage meant that my Decembers are always naturally a mix of what one might associate with the two countries’ traditions. There are happy and warm beach vacations, with everything a typical summer might involve. But, the house was also decorated with a nativity set and pine branches—though these were usually the less fragrant, indigenous version, with no mistletoe in sight. 

This adoption of a holiday that is traditionally associated with European or North American customs led to some humorous adaptations. For instance, the Christmas market I mentioned has come up with an ingenious but strange invention to merge traditions by offering a chilled Glühwein. And, the Lindor balls specially bought for Christmas Eve are now kept in the fridge, because my family has learned what happens when you bite into the soft centre during a heat wave in your nice dress!

The festive traditions around the Southern hemisphere reflect a similar fusion. In Australia, it’s not uncommon to see Christmas cards with Santa in sunglasses on a sleigh being pulled by kangaroos. In fact, in an annual tradition, the famous Bondi Beach is filled with surfing Santas, enough to be awarded the Guinness Book World Record for the world’s largest surf lesson in the past.

“It's not a cozy thing, because it's always outdoors. It would be weird to spend Christmas indoors,” says Lachlan Summers, a post-doctoral research fellow and writer who grew up on the Gold Coast of Australia and later spent many years living in Mexico. He describes summery December, with time to see friends, as the most exciting time of year in the country.

“Christmas is barbecue time,” he says. While more European traditional meats like turkey and gammon are still a staple on the festive menu, they are likely to be barbecued or cooked the day before and then served cold. Luxurious salads, stone fruit, and fresh seafood are all typical additions.

Summers describes Christmas dinners on the deck with extended family, before an obligatory cricket game and a swim in the pool. “For some reason I remember my brother and I always used to sleep in a tent in our backyard with my cousins.”

The outdoor fun extends into the national sporting calendar. December 26 typically sees Australians flipping the channels between the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and the Boxing Day cricket test match.

Across the ocean in South America, traditions are a similar mix of summery and festive ideas, in part influenced by the traditions of their neighbours to the North. “We've tried to imitate so much from American Christmas, but in our own way,” says Alejandra Osorio Tarazona. She is from Lima, Peru, though she now lives in Berlin, Germany, currently working for the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.

She says that in her home city, decorating houses with plastic Christmas trees and on the outside with Santa Claus figures or reindeer is common, even though those elements do not normally belong to the lived experience of a typical Peruvian.

Osorio Tarazona remembers fireworks being a large part of the Christmas celebrations in her childhood. Families would make an occasion out of buying them at local markets and then lighting up the festive night sky. But, after multiple dangerous incidents, particularly a fire at a popular Lima market, this tradition has become less common.

An enduring tradition is that on Christmas Eve, families will typically wait till late in the evening or midnight to eat and open presents, perhaps a reflection of Peru’s strong Catholic population. For Osorio Tarazona’s family, that dinner often meant a whole turkey and champagne. Of course, turkey sandwiches were a must the next day!

In terms of dessert, Italian immigrants likely brought the tradition of a Christmas Panettone cake over, though the Peruvian version is often adapted with raisins and candied orange zest.

A rather mismatched tradition is the drinking of hot cocoa. “It's too hot to drink this very hot drink, but we're still doing it. It's the only time in the year that people do it and it doesn't make very much sense,“ she says.

At the end of the day—or Eve—Christmas in the Southern hemisphere is just as jolly in the North, and just as legitimate for those who call it home. Regardless of where you are or the weather report, there is likely to be family, friends, and good food around. Snow negotiable.