My First Christmas Away From Home

When I bought a one-way ticket to Sydney, I knew I wasn't coming back for the holidays. I also knew that it would be difficult to be away from home during Christmas. But I never imagined just how homesick it would make me. 

For starters, it doesn't feel like Christmas in Australia. Just ask anyone. The weather is hot & the streets are barely decorated in lights. There's no hot cocoa or mulled wine or eggnog. Nobody wears scarves, tacky Christmas sweaters, coats or mittens. For the Aussies, Christmas traditions include a seafood or barbecue lunch, swimsuits, flip flops, and short-sleeved Santa suits.  

I had always imagined that I would spend Christmas Day on the beach, cooking barbecue with friends and letting the sun soak up every ounce of my Christmas blues. But as fate would have it, it rained the entire day. I worked all day Christmas Eve--four hours at my first job and six hours at my second. That evening, I went to Darling Harbour with a small group of friends. We drank and sang Christmas songs as we watched fireworks light up the water. When it began to pour down, we took cover in a bar where we spent the rest of the night drinking punch with a hodge podge of other travelers and internationals. We walked home in the drizzle & ended up in an alleyway decorated with a hundred empty birdcages where we danced & twirled underneath.

{Town Hall}

{Martin Place}

On Christmas morning, I walked to my friend Emily's flat, so that I could use her wifi to skype with my family back home. Our friend Kat came over just as it started to pour buckets, so we decided to call a cab to go back to my house and get ready for the Christmas festivities. I felt like I hit an all time low as we stood on her doorstep in the rain waiting for the taxi, cider beers in hand, eating rice crackers & hummus for Christmas brunch. It was a pitiful sight.

Everyone arrived to our house around 2:00 pm for the holiday smorgasbord. Because my flatmate, Victoria, had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day night at the hospital, we had about a five-hour window to celebrate Christmas together. Our meal consisted of assorted meats, boiled potatoes and carrots, salad, potato chips, gummy worms, mince pies, hummus, pate, crackers, chocolates and tons of booze. Santa came and left a few goodies in our $1.50 stockings, so my flatmates & I opened those in the afternoon as well. We played Christmas tunes and drinking games, and one of our guests performed a handful of card tricks. We danced around our untidy living room, wearing Santa hats, reindeer antlers, lei necklaces and the paper crowns from our Christmas crackers (which as I learned do not actually contain edible crackers). Even though the weather was miserable & we were all thousands of miles from home, the 10 of us (2 Americans, 1 Canadian & 7 Brits) who come from all walks of life, came together to share a lovely holiday. Because on this one day we all had one important commonality; we were orphans.

{Stockings hung on the fake fireplace with care}

 {Christmas Day}

{Kat, me, & Emily}

{the morning after Christmas}

So I survived my first Christmas away from home. And though I made the most of it, I hope it will be the last Christmas that I miss. There's a warmth that comes from being with your family on Christmas. It's a kind of warmth that has nothing to do with the weather. It comes from the glow of the fireplace, the twinkling lights on the tree, my grandma's cookies, my mom's crab fondue. It's a warmth that radiates from the smiles and laughter of the people you love most. It fills you up like Christmas dinner--until you're so full you can't imagine being any happier. That's what Christmas spirit is to me & it took being a half a world away for me to learn to appreciate it.