Sounds wonderful. What are the Austrian traditions? It's not so much the food and catching up with the relatives that is the problem, it is (for me) the Plethora of non-Australian product that is foisted upon us, i.e.:
Snow-covered Spruce and snow covered Christmas trees, shop windows filled with winter snow scenes, Christmas cards with winter scenes, talking of sleighs and such, European holly leaves, etc. etc.
We have perfectly good trees in Australia that could be used for Christmas trees, we have several varieties of native holly leafed grevillea, we have numerous correa species that are bell shaped and could be embraced as they are often red/green, the Western Australian floral emblem is the most glorious of flowers - the Kangaroo Paw - Anigozanthos Manglesii with its irridescent green and red flowers, the Woollemi Pine is now readily available. Buy one in a pot and plant it out after Christmas. Pinus radiata and all its related species are not natives, yet are cut down in the thousands to be put inside Australian homes, gradually depositing their needles, until finally laid to rest on the nature strip some weeks after Christmas.
Our Christmas is in Summer and we should embrace that. The weather is warm and sometimes hot - it rarely snows.
Embrace an Aussie Christmas as much as possible is my motto for this year. See how you go.
