Right, so here’s the thing about the Northern Hemisphere – it’s the complete opposite of down here. When it’s day here, it’s night there; today is yesterday; up is down; the seasons are completely topsy-turvy. For travellers, this represents a fantastic opportunity to skip the bothersome seasons and head to the opposite side of the world for whatever climate takes your fancy. Endless summers or never-ending winters are not only possible but relatively easy to achieve.
That said, if you’ve booked your flight (if you are still searching, we can help) and you find yourself spending Christmas in the Northern Hemisphere for the first time, there are some noticeable differences that’ll leave you saying things like…
“Freezing. It’s just freezing. Why is it so freezing?!”
Growing up, I was never woken by Santa’s sleigh on Christmas morning, but rather my eyes were seared open by the blistering sun shooting through my window, signaling that it was going to be another stunning forty-degree day. The Northern Hemisphere is absolutely freezing and for us Southern-sphere folk this is quite a shock. While many of the Christmas clichés now make a lot more sense and the whole thing has a nice fuzzy feel to it, there’s no escaping the fact that it’s colder than a polar bear’s toenails.
“Why is everyone wearing bad Christmas jumpers?”
There are good things about the cold as well. The idea of even approaching a jumper in the Southern Hemisphere over Christmas is largely ridiculous. We have Christmas branded singlets, Christmas stubby holders, and Christmas pool toys, but the closest we get to wool is the steel wool we use to clean the barbie. Not so in the Northern Hemisphere. Due to the Baltic conditions, heavy jumpers are a must and the ridiculous Christmas jumper is a staple of the holidays. People even throw parties to celebrate these truly grotesque sartorial creations. Yep. Weird.
“What’s that smell?”
Likely some sort of cloved ham. Or a mince pie. Or mulled wine. I admit I’m still a little unsure about some of these food choices, but I’ll admit they’re delicious! For some reason, so many of these foods are only eaten at Christmas time, which doesn’t make a lot of sense, because surely there’s nothing particularly “seasonal” about a fruit mince pie. But, hey, I don’t make the rules – I just stuff my face with them. Christmas smells abound from every shop you pass; the homely, gorgeous smell of burning herbs and flaky cooking pastry is around every corner. It leaves you talking as if you’re reading straight from Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol. The usual smells of coconut sunscreen and burnt BBQ sausages are, sadly, nowhere to be found. And on that…
“Where are the prawns?”
Depending on whether you’ve always wanted that traditional Christmas lunch, or you long for the BBQs and fish and prawns and casual Southern Hemisphere holiday celebrations, you won’t be able to deny that food is a massive part of Christmas anywhere. While prawns aren’t a staple of most Northern Hemisphere Christmas buffets, turkeys the size of a Mini Cooper are planted on your dinner table, which should be enough to assuage the rumbling tummies.
“Why are there so many lights?”
Christmas up North is distinctly darker than in the bottom half of the world. Not David Lynch, monsters-in-the-closet dark, but literally, it’s 4pm and it’s pitch black. This can be unusual if you’re used to a post-dinner, 8pm beach swim on Christmas day. It does, however, mean that the Christmas lights are spectacular and make for fantastic viewing, all day everyday. They’re so abundant they basically light up every street you’ll ever stumble down. Plus you won’t have to stay up till 11pm to see them.
“Why is everybody queuing at that shop window?”
Elaborate shop windows are a bit of a tradition in the Northern Hemisphere. The big department stores dish out sleighs of money and have months of preparation to make their shop windows mesmerizing. While this is odd enough, what’s even more bizarre is the way people flock to these windows as if they were theatre shows. They queue to see a shop window! Mental. I mean, I know getting tickets to the new Harry Potter play is virtually impossible, but there’s got to be something else on…
“Santa seems more at home here…”
Dressed in his warm red cloak and iconic hat, Santa looks cosy and comfortable in the North. Completely at odds to how he should dress if he’s planning a trip to the Southern Hemisphere. Which is why, when you see him popping up in scorching heat, it can be somewhat conflicting. But over here, oh, he just looks completely at ease. So much so, that his beaming smile is almost a little smug as he reminds you that he’s dressed in some sort of seal fur luxury coat while you’ve got on a thin cotton H&M jumper that you found in a charity shop.
“These markets are amazing!”
Christmas markets are something that I’ve never really seen in the Southern Hemisphere. While, obviously they exist (please don’t comment about how wrong I am), they certainly don’t pack the punch that the Northern Hemisphere versions do. The European Christmas markets are perhaps the most famous, with their gingerbread styled houses complete with slanted roofs piled with snow, every inch covered in lights, incredible warming food – I could go on. But believe me, that level of Christmas is something you’ve only ever read about if you come from the South.
- Not sure what we are talking about? Then take a look at “10 of the best Christmas markets in Europe“
“Christmas makes so much more sense now!”
It’s hard for people in the Southern Hemisphere to come to terms with just how Christmas-y Christmas actually is in the Northern Hemisphere. All the holiday clichés you’ve seen in Home Alone, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and Love Actually all ring so much more true when you’re spending the season in the North. Depending on where you are, there’s a chance of snow, people are all snug and warm in their jumpers, kids go ice skating at winter wonderland festivals. Then there are the pubs for mulled wine and fireplaces that are actually useful – it just feels so much more like the Christmas you always read about and saw in movies. And it’s fantastic.
