There is a bit of a tradition in Australia for a southern hemisphere mid winter celebration  it is usually  “Xmas in July”. In our family we don’t do exactly this… wehave a party weekend for the mid-Winter Solstice in late June.  The actual mid winter day was 20 Junethis year: when those of us in the southern hemisphere have our shortest day and longest night.  Did you know –I only just found out – that the word “solstice” comes from two Latin words: sol or sun and sistit, which means stands. They are so named because the sunappears to stand still in the sky for a few days before and after eachsolstice.  Of course while WE were having our Winter solstice – my friends in the northern hemisphere were heading off to Stonehenge and other stone circles to celebrate mid SUMMER.

In writing this I am reminded of the last twice time we went out hunting for Santa Claus.  Oncewas in the Rockie Mountains in December and more recently in Finland roundNewYear -- -- the USA North Pole is at the foot of Pikes Peak, Colorado (http://santas-colo.com )– the Finnish visitwas from the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi (http://www.icehotel.com/).  We found him too both times and both times we ended up very VERY cold! The Aussie mid-winter is naturally much warmer than either the Rockiesor Santa’s real home in northern Finland. Despite this we booked for a Yulefeast on Saturday evening with good Aussie red wine and brandy after. We also tried (but failed) to enjoy a few cocktails while we’re there.  We failed because the license didn’tallow non-dinner drinking… sigh! Oh well – just have to mix my own – luckily I’ve lots of great mocktail recipes at http://www.travellingguin.com/Penguin_travel_biography.asp. 

In Australia we don’t have a lot of snow and its getting less with global warming – most likely the Aussie ski and mountain sports tourist industry will be one of the very first in the world to be closed by greenhouse.  Anyhow we certainly have no hope of snow around the REAL Christmas—December is our mid-summer.  So come mid-winter we’re keen to hunt out at least some chilly weather that gives us an excuse for log fires, warm clothes and hot toddies.  This year we went away the weekend of 21-23 June – nearly mid winter - to BarringtonTops.  The web page of our chosen resort claims “after many, many years of living at the North Pole, Santa has decided to relocate here …the views arebreathtaking and I have always wanted to be based in a World Heritage Wilderness” they say he said.  Well we actually missed meeting Santa  (he’s due in July they say) but we did enjoy the crisp mountain air and clear starry nights.   We also met a wallaby or two and some very tame horses. All these guys headed over to our cabin as soon as we moved in the clear hope of extra food.  You can seethem in the picture – along with me in my Santa hat and clutching my Xmas sock– we did get pressies but not many – “you can’t have Xmas every day, you know”.