MY COUNTRY CHILDHOOD
FOR CHILDREN, CHRISTMAS GLOWS LIKE A BEACON. SOME OF COUNTRY STYLE’S FRIENDS RECALL THEIR MOST CHERISHED FESTIVE MOMENTS.
Some of Country Style’s favourites share their fond memories of Christmas celebrations in rural areas.
CICADAS HERALD another scorching day, and the kitchen – just as hot – is a hive of activity from early morning. A country Christmas is quintessentially Australian, with hordes of cousins, Grandpa dressed as Santa, and a feast that leaves everyone stuffed to the gills. But there’s always room for Mum’s legendary pud, followed by a game of cricket, swims in creeks or over-chlorinated pools, and an afternoon snooze. Here, well-known Australians share memories of their childhood country Christmases.
Jessica White
Lecturer at the University of Queensland and author of three books who lost her hearing as a child (Brisbane, Qld)
“A few weeks before Christmas, we jumped into the ute and Dad drove to the hills at the back of the farm to cut down a pine tree. Back at the house, we fixed the tree in an old petrol bucket filled with sand from the sandpit, and Mum taped Christmas wrapping paper around the bucket to hide the rusted tin. My brother, sister and I took turns in opening a window on the Advent calendar, which meant one piece of chocolate to ourselves every three days. Meanwhile, at the local primary school, we rehearsed for the school nativity play in the dusty town hall, hot, bored and longing for a swim. I was often an angel, my brother a choirboy.
“My grandparents, their three sons and their families lived on the property, and Christmas Day lunch was hosted by a different family each year. With 17 of us, there was so much noise and laughter that I, deaf since
I was four, found it difficult to keep up. I always enjoyed it when our grandfather dressed up as Father Christmas. After roast chicken, potato salad and flaming Christmas pudding, the nine cousins dive-bombed each other in the pool and raced one another underwater. Hours later, we were told to get out, and we emerged wrapped in towels with wrinkled fingers, smelling of sunscreen and chlorine.”
Ashley Dawson-damer
Philanthropist and author (Bathurst, NSW)
“My mother always did a message from Father Christmas. We’d put out sherry and Christmas cake for Father Christmas and always there would be two small gifts for the children, my brother, Richard, and me. There would be a message from Father Christmas in scribbly handwriting, ‘The Christmas cake was really nice; you’ve been good children’. Almost to the day she died, Mum was still doing it every Christmas we had. I think she learnt the scribbly handwriting from the Snugglepot and Cuddlepie books.” >
“Dad drove to the hills at the back of the farm to cut down a pine tree. Back at the house we fixed the tree in an old petrol bucket filled with sand.” Jessica White, author
Craig Zonca
Radio and television presenter (Rockhampton, Qld)
“Christmas has always been a big deal for our family. I always remember as a youngster, back in the ’80s, when Santa used to arrive in a fire truck. One year, I wrecked it for all the kids as I worked out that Santa was my dad! I might have been aged four or five. I said, ‘Dad, is that you?’”
Matt Clarke
Coach of AFLW team the Adelaide Crows and former AFL player (Wakool, SA)
“Christmas in our family alternated between Mum’s parents in the NSW farming community around Wakool (population 300) and Dad’s parents farm in Tantanoola (population about the same) in south-east South Australia. We lived just outside of Mount Gambier. Wakool Christmas was a holiday for Dad and it was a couple of weeks spent yabbying, hunting rabbits and riding motorbikes.
“At Tantanoola, it was more about Christmas Day as Dad would often be on call [as a vet]. We would have a big roast and plum pudding with teethbreaking silver shillings. We’d play cricket with our cousins, climb up pine trees to look in birds’ nests and, in the afternoon, we’d milk the cows for our grandfather and uncle.”
Claire Mactaggart
Writer and cattle farmer (Warwick, Qld)
“Christmas was often spent at my grandparents’ property at Swanfels, near Warwick in Queensland. I often marvel now how my parents packed their five children in the car, plus all the presents, and made the 10-hour
“We’d play cricket, climb trees to look in birds’ nests and in the afternoon, milk cows for our grandfather.” Matt Clarke, AFL coach
journey south from our property in central Queensland. Mum would have us wind down the windows as we drove over Cunninghams Gap, to listen to the bellbirds. I have 26 cousins on my mother’s side and somehow many of us squeezed into the old farmhouse, which had five bedrooms and a sleep-out verandah. My grandmother Eileen was a whiz at catering for guests and her large family from her tiny kitchen with a wood stove up one end. Her hospitality was well-known and Christmas lunch was roast and all the trimmings, as well as cold meats and salads. After opening presents and eating far too much, we would head to the creek below the house and swim beneath the willow trees.
“In the alternate years, we had Christmas at our beach house at Emu Park with my father’s family and it was all about beach cricket, swimming for hours or exploring rock pools with our cousins and visiting friends. My siblings
and I were allowed to walk to the local library and borrow as many books as we could before it closed for Christmas. No doubt that allowed Mum and Dad a little peace amidst the Christmas chaos!”
Anna Daniels
Writer, producer and presenter (Rockhampton, Qld)
“I remember us all sitting around the loungeroom, cracking up with laughter at Mum as we unwrapped presents that were intended for other people, and had found their way into our Christmas stockings! It happened every year!”
Megan Park
Fashion designer and author (Melbourne, Vic)
“My most memorable Christmas was the year I awoke to a newly-built cubby house in our garden. I still don’t know how, but my dad, who had been building my cubby ‘off-site’, managed to install it during the night – and I mean stumped and cemented into the ground, never to move. Indicative of my dad – everything was built to last a lifetime. It became my sanctuary for years to come. Here in my floral flares and cropped halter top I look as pleased as punch with my Christmas present – circa 1975.”
Mary Li
Former principal ballerina, ballet mistress with Queensland Ballet and author (Rockhampton, Qld)
“Mum always made a beautiful dinner and other families were invited. There were white tablecloths, roast pork, plum pudding and custard. By the time we had finished, the heat had gotten to us all and Mum would put us kids under the hose to run about and keep cool.”
Read more about Mary Li’s country childhood in the December issue of
Country Style.
“After opening presents and eating far too much, we would head to the creek below the house and swim.”
Claire Mactaggart, writer