Christmas time in Australia is often hot. It’s not unusual to be celebrating in 35°C (that’s around 95°F). As a result all the yummy, hot Christmas food is mostly off the menu – unless you want to spend a sweltering day in the kitchen.
But we don’t miss out! Many families have a Christmas in July. This is not about the religious significance of Christmas, however. Nor is it usually about gift giving and receiving. Instead, it’s a chance to get together with family and friends while enjoying a traditional hot Christmas style lunch or dinner.
July is also a good time to start thinking about getting organised for the coming Christmas. It might seem like forever away, but a little early preparation can save a lot of time, stress and money later in the year.
Each Tuesday in July, I’ll have a Christmas themed post covering things like recipes, getting ready for Christmas and gift ideas.
More in the Christmas in July series
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Hey, I found you through Entrecard!
Great blog and congrats on the 3 month blogoversary!
Am I eligible for the giveaway even if I’m in the US?
Anyhow, my tip for Christmas is about shopping. You can find great shopping sales and deals at slickdeals (dot) net and dealnews (dot) net, at least for the USA, I never really thought about from shopping in another country!
Kim @ What’s That Smell?s last blog post..Sweetie Pie Baby Boutique – A Review
You are absolutely eligible 🙂 I’ll email the voucher, so it can go anywhere. And thanks for the great tip!
Thanks for visiting. I’m glad you like Journeyer’s Chronicles.
Last year, while googling ‘Christmas in July’, I found that the tradition has made it over to the northern hemisphere. So that as opposed to Aussies celebrating Christmas in July like northerners celebrate Christmas in December, northerners can celebrate Christmas in July like Aussies celebrate Christmas in December. Does this make anyone else’s head HURT? 🙂
My Christmas in July tip: Some stores (Target and Kmart in particular) have worked out that Christmas in July is a good chance to haul the unsold christmas stuff out of storage, dust it off a little and sell it at half-price. So if you’re a little low on supplies, keep an eye out while you’re at the shops. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Naomis last blog post..Dumb Cats and Dead Mice
Naomi, so it’s celebrations all round 🙂
Good tip about the sales. I’ll keep my eyes opened.
My Christmas tip is to keep Christmas in mind all year ’round when shopping at sales. It is never too early to start shopping for gifts, and when you shop through the whole year, concentrating on sales, it makes it easier on your budget and your time. Plus you won’t have to fight the crowds when it gets close to Christmas time.
If you’re a crafty type, start on Christmas gifts very early to avoid knitting or crocheting all nighters as the holiday gets closer – or worse, half completed projects or IOU’s on Christmas morning LOL
Good advice Gina. I am usually a not quite last minute person (maybe late November) which sometimes means I can’t do everything I want. One of the reasons I’m starting to think about Christmas now.
We have started a few strategies to help with what we tend to call ‘Coping With Christmas’…
1. My side of the family is fairly frugal, so to save money/time/unwanted gifts my family do a Secret Santa for Christmas, but with a few conditions!
Each family member submits a list of 5 things that come under the agreed dollar value to go into the draw. This also has to be completed in November so your SS has plenty of time to organise their SS gift.
Since we do this with my immediate family, my husband and I only have to worry about his side of the family, friends and the kids we give gifts to.
2. We have budgeted and saved up for Christmas the last three years in a row, saving a set amount each month for the normally huge expense that seems to come hand in hand with the Christmas Season. This means we don’t use credit or dip into our normal budget (or savings!) to pay for Christmas gifts, food/drinks for entertaining, or holidays.
3. Start asking your family and friends what they need/want (there is sometimes a very fine line between the two!) for Christmas now.
Even if they don’t give you a response straight away, you’ve got them thinking about Christmas as well!
Thanks for a great post about getting sorted for Christmas, in July 🙂
Meegans last blog post..Hospital Visit #4 – just another thing to add to the list…
Lots of good advice there Meegan, thank you. We do a secret santa too. However we hadn’t thought of submitting a list of ideas. What a great way to take the headaches out of trying to think of a gift 🙂 Saving for Christmas throughout the year certainly makes a huge difference.
Funny enough I have thought of giving my kids “Half Birthday” parties so they can experience a warm weather birthday party but I’ve never thought of doing the same with Christmas.
I’d love to be in the drawing so here is my tip…going to submit my subscriber entry too! Start a gift box. When you see an item that is well-priced or unlikely to be seen with the usual gift-giving fare in the season AND is a perfect gift for someone on your list, pick it up. I enjoy bringing out my box in mid-November and being pleasantly surprised that my gift buying is almost done. It’s similar to saving money up during the year but now the buying work is done too.
Suzannes last blog post..Tally Tuesday – July 1
Thanks Suzanne and good luck with the draw 🙂
I’ve started a little collection of gifts – mostly for kids’ friends’ birthdays during the year. It’s always fun to see what’s hidden away, as I usually forget what’s there 🙂 I haven’t done it so much for Christmas because I would find it difficult to hide things from my kids in the house – they’re very good treasure hunters. I should start something for Christmas presents for others though
[…] Win a $20 Amazon voucher in the Christmas in July […]
[…] Win a $20 Amazon voucher in the Christmas in July […]
[…] Win a $20 Amazon voucher in the Christmas in July […]
I still don’t understand why we do Christmas in ‘July’ – wouldn’t half Christmas be June??
So a tip.. hmmm… since Christmas also coincides with the end of the school year here it often means gifts for teachers.
Before I had kids I was a preschool teacher and I got a lot of soap and candles as gifts! Now that I have kids of my own at preschool I am trying to come up with some really great gift ideas for their teachers… I can still remember some of the best gifts I was ever given as a teacher – a double pass to the movies, a gift voucher to a book store (I could buy something for myself or something for teaching), a special letter from the child telling me all the things they loved about kinder, books for the kinder….
So my tip is to start thinking now about something to give your kids teachers so you don’t rush out at the last minute and buy soap or candles.. not that is anything wrong with soap or candles… I guess…
katefs last blog post..Quilt Lust…
Katef – I’m not sure how it came to be in July… Thanks for the tips about teachers’ gifts. I’m always at a loss what to get them and usually end up with candles or something similar 😮 . I had thought about the letters, but thought they might get a ton of those as well. Perhaps I’ll reconsider them for this year.
[…] I would like to thank everyone who entered the competition. You all provided some great tips for making it through the festive season a littler saner. I have highlighted some of your tips throughout the Christmas in July series, but if you’d like to see them all in one place you can read them in the comments section here. […]