Ausztrál Karácsony Video

Merry Christmas everyone! I made a video about Australian Christmas you can find on my channel. I receive so many questions about Australian Christmas, and it's honestly a topic that is NOT difficult to find information on. There must be hundreds of thousands of videos on it so I really appreciate that a whole bunch of people care about my take on it. 

I had an entirely different video planned, where I wanted to go out an about in Sydney in search of presents etc. But unfortunately due to a Covid outbreak (there hadn't been any community transmission cases here in over a month), it just didn't seem like an appropriate thing to do plus the weather was really bad. But if this year has taught us nothing else, it's that sometimes.. you just.. make it happen differently. 

Naturally the opening montage was full of stereotypes!! What I love about the below picture is the fact that his Santa hat is modified to have a rim, since sun protection is no joke. 

In the intro I do say that I never feel more like an urleny explaining Christmas to Europeans (not just Hungarians). Some people simply do not believe it's possible. You'll also notice some szaloncukor in the tree. I had to buy it from hungariangoods.com.au and it was pretty expensive but you gotta do what you gotta do.

It would've been too easy to go absolute overdrive on the summery stuff so I only mildly trolled in this video. For example in this title card, palm trees are not hugely significant iconography here, but what a departure from the traditional European Christmas motifs, so it had to be done.  

It was important to me to start with the British origins of our Christmas. People's minds go immediately to Santa hats on the beach when they think of our Christmas, when in reality that's global conspiracy (tourist dolog/performative). About 70% of Christmas here is a bunch of English traditions, then 20% is some localisation due to the weather and other environmental factors, then the last 10% is batshit craziness that's a joke to us as well.

We got to see an excerpt from the Queen's Christmas message from 2019, followed by a great end-card from her YouTube channel. Lilibet was the queen's nickname as a child, the 54 member states refers to the Commonwealth-affiliated countries, and 'God Save The Me' is a reference to the name of the British anthem 'God Save The Queen'.  

The first topic we breach is on what we eat at Christmas. Someone asked if we eat kangaroo at Christmas, which Bendeguz wasn't sure about.

"Hey Bendeguz, whaddyareckon?"

Delicious Christmas dinner. I think this image is from an American thanksgiving. I hope someone noticed.

Honestly if someone under 70 enjoys Christmas pudding then I'm immediately suspicious of them. It's not the most devastating item, but you grow up being scarred by it as a child when it's particularly non-palatable. The below clip is taken from a clip of Kiszel Tunde being rejected from an event, but it is how you feel when Christmas pudding rears its sludgy head at the table. 

Seafood is a thing at Christmas here. My family actually never really had Christmas seafood, but it's quite common.

What I love about this below shot is that we've got the big Christmas tree in the back and the people in summer attire in the front. Note as per the above, this footage was taken when there had been 0 cases of community transmission of coronavirus in over a month, and there was no mask mandate except in confined areas (like lifts, taxis, public transport). This is the largest indoor Christmas tree in Australia and it shows up every year in Queen Victoria Building.

Yes there are actually a lot of varieties of Christmas tree other than pine trees in Australia. Here's a (fake) eucalyptus Christmas tree but there are a lot of different bushes and things people use. 

The next part of the video was focused on how Christmas is during summer in Australia, which truly is unimaginable for some. 

One question was 'Mi lehet karácsony ho nélkül', which is a silly question since look at this big ho. This koala went viral some months ago due to its seductive post and come-hither stare.

Despite it being summer, a lot of items are obviously imported from the northern hemisphere. So don't wear a pulcsi and sal, especially if you're a chocolate bear who can melt! The song which played was none other than Szomoru Vasarnap.

I did get the question from a few people if we feel like we're missing out in Australia that we don't have a magical cold Christmas, and it's just not the case. Some people phrased that question in a blunter way lol ouch. It's just not the case really. See these Brisbane-looking kids below enjoying the antics of Lenke in everyone's favourite show Szomszedok, so they know all the traditions. But it's just someone else's traditions, so it's hard to feel like you miss out on something you don't have especially if what you have gives you enough joy etc.   

But let's look at holy spiders dancing instead! Yes it's got edits on top but their actual movements are legit. It's from a Peacock Spider in Western Australia.

And this is a huntsman spider, with a (fake) Santa hat. A few things about this spider: 1) It's not dangerous so it's bit ugly but not cause for alarm 2) This one is HUGE! It's from a viral news article about a man in Queensland who let it live with him 3) Some people call them 'wall puppies'. Yikes! The hat is actually on its butt, but you try telling him he's doing it wrong.

This footage of the surfing Santas is from an Aldi Australia ad. It's so good.

I don't know if you know Wolf Creek but it's an Australian horror movie about a serial killer who goes after tourists, but that sounds like a suitable Krampusz equivalent to me.

This book is an iconic Australia Christmas story. It was actually illustrated by my mother, who was an Artist. I should translate the whole story into Hungarian and read it one day as a video.

I really love this illustration in the background, especially the Santa hats on the ibises (the bird with the long beak, who was also the liderc in the Hungarian video and also known as 'bin chickens' because they forage through garbage a lot. 

We had a very deep and sensitive moment talking about how all traditions are in part logical, in part not logical and what matters at the end of the day is family, togetherness, caring, spirituality, all that jazz etc. but the last part got cut for time in a very recycled joke. But hey, I love recycling.  

And we get an update from Australia's masik kiralynoje, Kylie Minogue. This is from a Tourism Australia ad targeted at the UK, but I like the sentiment and it has end of year vibes. 

The video is so cheesy haha, but so is Christmas so what a match. 

Yes a quokka really is what we all need! I hope you enjoyed this video and happy holidays! I'm curious if you found it interesting at all. At the very least, I hope it was a bit of visual fodder and if it was 3% uplifting then I'm thrilled!