Most Australian families go away and spend their holidays in a resort or on the beach.
Swimming is always popular.
Unlike in New York, people walk around in shorts and T-shirts and still get sweltering hot. Everyone invites their friends and grandparents over for salad with cold meats, or a picnic, or even a barbecue. Nobody has anything like a roast dinner or a turkey. When kids wake up in the morning, they hurriedly toss off their sheet and race towards the plastic Christmas tree. The presents are piled up under it.