One of my favorite holiday movies is 1945's "Christmas in Connecticut" starring Miss Barbara Stanwyck. In it, she plays journalist Elizabeth Lane who authors a popular food column in a home style magazine. The movie opens as she writes an article about the perfect Christmas at her perfect country house in Connecticut when in actually she has a one bedroom walk-up in New York City. When she is supposed to host an elaborate party at her supposed house she wails,"Arrange it, are you crazy? Where am I gonna get a farm? I haven't even got a window box!"
That's how I felt trying to get into the Christmas spirit in Australia. I said the right holiday things to people but inside it just didn't feel right. Having only known a norther n hemisphere Christmas with cold weather and short days celebrated with lotsa lights and decorations, having long +90F days and Christmas bbq's just struck an incongruous cord that was simply hard to shake.Refugees from the northern hemisphere advised me, "You'll never get used to it" and to just muddle along, window box or no.
So it's good to be back up north for a bit. And while it may not be a farm in Connecticut, it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
- Farmer Ted
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