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It began with a Christmas Card, which only caught my eye because of the Penguins.* But the penguins were holding a small placard – the protesting kind, and the placard read ‘down with sprouts’.

*Penguins are the greatest. It goes Plants, Cats, Penguins. Although some penguins are probably even better than some cats.

I didn’t understand, but I was hooked… and soon I started seeing sprouts everywhere in London. Not just small ‘sprout trees’ sold at the farmers’ market, but also sprouts on Christmas wrapping paper, and even a shiny sprout Christmas ornament, not unlike the infamous ‘German’ Pickle.… Read more

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading up on the various Christmas traditions of different cultures in search for some inspo for this Advent Calendar. And I think I’ve found my favourite.… Read more

When I was young, I loved The Sound of Music. … Read more

As I was reading fun facts about my beloved West Australian Christmas tree, wikipedia had the audacity to note that New Zealand also has its own Christmas tree. And I suspect it just might be better.… Read more

The conversation went a bit like this:… Read more

Growing up in Australia, we had a bunch of Christmas traditions that anyone from the far North (Eurasia and North America) might consider strange.

Christmas in my hometown of Perth commonly reaches 40+ degrees C (104 F), so we swap snow with swimming, and often favour seafood and salad over hot turkey roast. There’s even Australian versions of some of the most famous Christmas songs (can I get you a ‘dashing through the sand, in our bathers and our thongs’?).

And over on the West Coast, we have our very own Australian Christmas Tree.… Read more

When you think of Christmas, you probably have a pretty good visual. But do you also have a good nose-ual? (smellual? scentual? someone help me with this).

Basically what I’m asking is – when you think of Christmas, what scents come to mind?… Read more