December 18, 2006

Curious, George: Baby, It's Hot Outside So it's unseasonably balmy where I live right now (Southern U.S.), which is just fine with me but has other folks complaining that it's just not Christmas unless it's cold enough to kill you if you get lost in the woods overnight. Which got me wondering: Are there Southern Hemisphere Christmas songs about the weather? Dashing through the sand in a one-horse open ... dune buggy, maybe? Chestnuts roasting on an open barbecue? In the Bleak Midsummer?
posted by hillbillyswamp 18 years ago
  • Nothing enduring that I know of. We still sing about dashing through snow and dreaming of a white Christmas. I remember having to learn some song in high school about how Santa's sleigh was driven by kangaroos (why no, there are no kangaroos in NZ) called "Six White Boomers".
  • An elf in a wife-beater and boxers. Very nice.
  • Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • well it's unseasonably cold in the Bay Area this week. going down to 30 tonight, which is very rare. brrr!! I wouldn't mind celebrating the holidays in Tahiti. meetup anyone?
  • I'd be interested in hearing/seeing any weather appropriate Christmas songs, too! Slight derail: I always thought it was odd that all of the Christmas songs were for a different climate, too, and I'm just from Texas (I can't imagine what it would be like to be a S. hemisphere person where it's actually, you know, summer!). My dad used to be into Model T cars, and we were in lots of parades and events in them. I remember one Christmas parade where everyone wore shorts and I got a sunburn, and I was thinking "White Christmas my bootie!"
  • White Christmas. The seldom-heard preamble: "The sun is shining. The grass is green. The orange and palm trees sway. There's never been such a day In Beverly Hills, L.A. But it's December the twenty-fourth, And I'm longing to be up north." It's unseasonably warm and snow-free here in Upstate NY this year, too, but I'm not complaining!
  • I am from Syracuse, New York, and I always wondered what the rest of the country (world) thought of all the snow-related stuff. Even as a kid, I figured that Santa could not possibly go where it doesn't snow. Now I live in North Carolina, and my neighbor has an inflatable Santa in a helicopter on the roof of her porch. I am no closer to an epiphany.
  • Last years' Xmas- New Years period was disgusting here in Adelaide, hot as hell and dry to boot. Last NYE I was close to fainting, at midnight it was still over 40 degrees C (that's about 104 degrees F I think)... yuk. It astounds me that people think cooking an Xmas turkey or a roast is a good idea in an Australian summer.
  • Oh, the weather outside is balmy And I hear the beaches call me It's sunny at Christmastime, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Oh, it doesn't show signs of raining, Good for outdoor entertaining, And it doesn't get dark 'til nine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. When we finally kiss goodnight How I'll hate going out in the sun But if you really hold me tight, You can put some suncreen on my bum. The brush fires are slowly dying And my dear, we're still good-byeing, But as long as you like me fine, Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
  • Oddly enough now I live in the Northern Hemisphere this time of year just does not feel like xmas at all! It was always my favourite thing to be at the beach. In my family though we did the roast thing ore on Christmas Eve when it was a bit cooler - and had pancakes on xmas morning and a light meal of leftovers during the day. (Grew up in Adelaide and it is often hot - last year at NYE there it was so warm it was fab!)
  • It's bloody cold in Melbourne today. Barely touching 20C. What's the point of moving half-way round the planet if it's going to be chilly at Christmas? Short-changed, I'm feeling.
  • It's frikking spring up here in what's supposed to be Canadian Winter New Hampshire. Wtf. Rosebushes are beginning to turn green again, so is the grass. It's a week away from christmas too! What the hell?
  • applause for TUM!!
  • *claps*
  • At the beach. My Mum used to go to school with Linn.
  • "They said there'd be snow at Christmas, They said there'd be peace on Earth. But instead it just kept on raining, A veil of tears for a virgin birth..." Xmas in the south-eastern UK, from my #2 best ever Xmas song, 'I Believe in Father Christmas' by Greg Lake. Makes me well up every time. (My #1 is 'Christmas Wrapping' by The Waitresses) p.s. TUM FTW!!!
  • Well played, TUM! Weather here in Southern Ontario is Autumn Extended. So far, only one 'cold' day. But with this blasted commute I'm currently doing, no snow is just fine by me.
  • Nice one, TUM
  • and even colder today in the bay area. frost warnings!! ice on the roads causing accidents. don't tell me the sky's not falling!!
  • i hate winter. snow sucks. I keep looking at the calendar counting the days until March.
  • As a USian parent, I happen to know of one hot-weather Xmas song: "Christmas Picnic" by The Wiggles. "We're having a picnic...on the beach/And it's Christmas Day! Bring all your friends/ We'll have some food/ Let's all laugh and play" Make the hurting stop!
  • Indeed, TP. I've been singing Mele Kalikimaka for almost 24 hours now. Rain is what we usually get down here too. I remember coming home from Christmas Eve services one year when I was a kid, and finding my grandfather sitting on the couch in our basement den with his shoes off and his pants rolled up to his knees because several inches of water had seeped in through the foundation. Why he didn't just go upstairs, I don't know. And nicely done, TUM.
  • Why he didn't just go upstairs, I don't know. 'Cause there's a bunch of wimmen up there, that's why. Yap, yap, yap, yap, yap. Who needs it. Hand me that lighter over there, willya? I've thought about this at some point or other as well, and think it adds a certain flava, a . . a . . je ne sais quoi to the cultural hegemony that is Christmas in North America/Western world. I like it, that pseudo-quasi-British-German-whatever that makes the snow-covered Christmas tree silent and the Fas La-La-ly, but it's not that way because of, say, Texas. Figgy pudding?? That's hilarious!
  • And to further derail, one of my prized possessions is a 45 by Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, called the "12 Answering Machine Messages of Christmas". They have some quick 'n' dirty renditions of Frosty the Snowman and such, but also this strange-o message saying "Help put the 'stma' back in 'Christmas'". But -- BUT -- it has a message by Joey Ramone, who says "Hi. This is Joey Ramone of the world-famous Ramones. Boy, this music is goos for my nerves... We just want to wish everyboy a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy Hannukah, for all our Jewish fans. So, Happy Holidays! Happy Holidays!" *sigh* Christmas always makes me think of Joey Ramone, now. [END DERAIL]
  • Monkeyfilter: Yap, yap, yap, yap, yap. Who needs it.