Mele kalikimaka?!

How is it possible to get a christmas feeling when it's 35 degrees celcius outside? When I had Corinne from Switzerland visiting in Brisbane last week, we found it hilarious to take pictures of us with a big christmas tree in the background. It feels so wrong! There is nothing here that reminds me of real christmas, like Norwegian christmas carols, the smells of cinnamon, oranges and cloves, baking cookies, snow and ice, cold temperatures, short days (meaning it's light only between 11 AM and 3PM), a warming fire, family and friends etc. Seeing golden balls, glitters and christmas trees in Australia make me laugh. Because it looks rediculous, of course. I'm not sure how Aussies celebrate christmas and how strong the traditions are, I just know that I'm very happy to be home on christmas eve. Because I miss the real good feeling Christmas gives me.

The cool band Walk Off The Earth do their version of the Hawaiian christmas song Mele Kalikimaka (click on the link for more explanation of what it means):

Here are the lyrics by Robert Alex Anderson:

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day

That's the island greeting that we send to you from the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii's way to say Merry Christmas to you

Put "Australian" in there instead of "Hawaiian", and it would sum up what I'm thinking right now, haha. "Queensland - the sunshine state" really lives up to its name now in December. The next song with the same band gives me a little more of the right feeling, with gloves and scarfs and a well known song. Would be cool to celebrate christmas in New York once:

This song of the wonderful Norwegian artist Maria Mena is sad, but at least it's about going home for christmas:

After trying about ten times I finally got to delete a whole bunch of photos in my google album, so here are Corinne and I on the King George Square in Brisbane, where they are about to put up the tree: