Time with loved ones, helping hands — How Australia is celebrating Christmas Day

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From the ocean to the bush, Australians have flocked to beaches, parks and paddocks to celebrate Christmas Day.

In western Queensland, the festive spirit took on an outback twist, with Santa on horseback and competitions for the best Christmas mailbox.

Georgia Whip, along with some friends, created a hay-based display at Leander station, north-west of Longreach, for a “bit of fun” this year.

Ballygar Station in Aramac, north-east of Longreach, won this year’s Barcaldine Regional Council rural Christmas mailbox completion. (Supplied: Ballygar Station)

With temperatures there tipped to reach the mid-40s later this week, Ms Whip said she would be dipping in a nearby dam on Christmas Day to keep cool.

“We’ll be having classic crunchy noodle salad, not like a big hot roast and veggies because I think it’s just too hot for that,” she said.

But even on Christmas Day, the hard work continues.

“It doesn’t stop for holidays, we’ve still got poddies [calves] to feed,” Ms Whip said.

hay bales have been turned into a santa

A hay-bale Santa at Leander station north-west of Longreach. (Supplied: Casey Owens)

Just south of Townsville, wildlife at Billabong Sanctuary were gifted enrichment presents.

“We’ve got a special meat package for Simpson, our big perentie. He’s one of the largest species of goanna in Australia,” Ranger Jeyn Laundrie said.

A goanna on orange dirt stands beside christmas gift

Simpson the goanna with his Christmas gift. (Supplied)

“For the koalas, we have some stockings with their favourite types of eucalyptus leaves, so there are some swampy gum leaves in there.”

While the animals won’t have visitors on Christmas Day, the rangers still come in to feed them and maintain the park before diving into Christmas lunch themselves.

Man in yellow and red lifesaving outfit sits on beach and smiles

Graham Burt spent his Christmas morning volunteering at the beach. (ABC News: Alexandria Utting)

On the Gold Coast, Graham Burt, who moved from Sydney last year, was on patrol at Mermaid Beach as locals and holiday-makers hit the waves.

He said everyone was thanking the Surf Lifesaving Volunteers for being out on Christmas Day, and he would clock off in time for his family lunch.

“Where else would you want to be on Christmas morning?” he said.

Festive lunch for those doing it tough

In Adelaide, volunteers ran a Christmas event for people experiencing homelessness.

The Hutt St Centre in the CBD hosted more than 200 people for a two-course festive lunch, hand-wrapped gifts and activities for those doing it tough.

“It’s a hard day for [people experiencing homelessness] because it highlights their loneliness and isolation,” Hutt St Centre CEO Chris Burns said.

woman in red dress plays game tossing wooden ring as people observe

Wendy Purcell (centre) said she was having a wonderful time at the Hutt St Centre’s Christmas event in Adelaide. (ABC News: Nethma Dandeniya)

Wendy Purcell said it was her third Christmas at the centre.

“If I didn’t come here, I wouldn’t eat breakfast or lunch,” she said.

“We all bond together because we’ve all been in the same situation.”

Meanwhile, many families set up picnics in patches of shade, including at Tusmore Park in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs, where children enjoyed a splash in the local wading pool.

Family stands together smiling dressed in colourful clothing, leafy trees in background

Families gathered at Tusmore Park in Adelaide’s eastern suburbs for picnic lunches and a dip in the public pool. (ABC News: Nethma Dandeniya)

‘A warm meal and a friendly smile’

In Sydney’s inner west, the Reverend Bill Crews Foundation served about 3,000 meals of ham, turkey, veggies and mini puddings by the day’s end at its annual Christmas lunch.

Reverend Crews said Wednesday’s event would leave all those taking part “energised”.

NSW Premier Chris Minns carries a tray of christmas day lunch as he walks with a volunteer helping out at a charity

Chris Minns (right) said families in the state were doing it tough. (Supplied)

“This really is the Christmas everybody on this earth should have,” he said.

“And the message, I think, at Christmas really is that change comes from who and when and where you least expect it, and often it doesn’t come from the powers that be. 

“It comes from the people themselves.”

Premier Chris Minns called it “fantastic” and a “hugely important” place where people who may be homeless, alone or struggling could get a “warm meal and a friendly smile”.

Meanwhile, in the heart of Sydney, about 300 people from all walks of life showed up for a free Christmas spread at the Wesley Mission.

volunteers at wesley mission dish out christmas lunch to hundred of people

About 300 people attended Wesley Mission’s free Christmas Day lunch. (ABC News: Victoria Pengilley)

It’s one of the charities that has experienced an overwhelming demand for their services this year.

“We run extensive emergency relief, financial counselling, and gambling counselling services across Sydney, across New South Wales. We’ve never, ever seen demand higher,” chief executive Stu Cameron said.

‘Orphan’s Christmas’ at Bronte Beach

Almost every inch of Sydney’s Bronte Beach was taken up with thousands of international tourists and backpackers in what’s become known as the “orphan’s Christmas”.

The annual event has grown in popularity, drawing criticism from concerned locals about the destruction to the beach and surrounding areas, and the amount of waste left behind by revellers.

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The ABC spoke to a number of beachgoers who were all in good spirits, dressed in their Santa hats and swimmers.

James and his friends all from Ireland had arrived at midday to secure a spot. He said it was his first time celebrating Christmas in the sun and it was “unreal”.

 “It’s completely different back home but very good,” he said.

Thousands pack Sydney's Bronte Beach for what has become known as the "orphan's Christmas"

Thousands pack Sydney’s Bronte Beach for what has become known as the “orphan’s Christmas”. (ABC News: Berge Breiland)

Giovanni and Jacopo from Italy arrived in Sydney two days ago and planned on heading to Brisbane on Thursday for a road trip around Australia.

“It’s like a dream,” Giovanni said about celebrating Christmas at the beach.

Survivors mark 50 years since Cyclone Tracy left Darwin ‘in ruins’

In Darwin, it was a more sombre mood, with the prime minister joining Cyclone Tracy survivors at a 50-year commemoration.

In one of the worst natural disasters Australia has ever seen, at least 66 people died and hundreds more were injured when the category four system struck Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974.

The cyclone destroyed and damaged eight in 10 homes and wiped out the city’s essential infrastructure, displacing tens of thousands of people in the biggest civilian evacuation in Australian history.

Some survivors had never returned to Darwin until Wednesday.

A close-up shot of a bearded older man.

Richard Creswick says the commemoration is a dedicated to the resilience of Cyclone Tracy survivors. (ABC News: Kyle Dowling)

Richard Creswick, a survivor and chair of the Remembering Cyclone Tracy committee, said the commemoration was dedicated to all those impacted by the disaster.

“Fifty years ago, almost to the hour, we emerged shell-shocked from our places of refuge,” he said.

“Bathrooms or baths, cupboards, under tables, beds or mattresses or downstairs in sheds, cars, boats or caravans … to a scene of devastation that few of any of us had ever seen before.

“We’d survived a six-hour battering of the senses, impossible to imagine.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the commemoration event honoured all those “who still carry the pain and trauma” of Cyclone Tracy today.

“We pay tribute to the great resilience of the great city of Darwin and the proud people who call it home,” he said.

‘Particularly tough year’

In the heart of Perth’s CBD, hundreds of worshippers connected with their spiritual roots at St George’s Cathedral for the Anglican Church’s Christmas Day service.

Perth Anglican Archbishop Kay Goldsworthy said the value of kindness in the Christmas story was still relevant, especially during a housing crisis.

“Christmas raises [issues], of course, to the surface for people when it’s been a particularly tough year,” she said.

Church proceedings from middle of an aisle, people at alter

Hundreds gathered in the heart of Perth at St George’s Cathedral for the Anglican Church’s Christmas day service.  (ABC News: )

“I spoke about the story of Mary and Joseph not finding anywhere to stay in Bethlehem, and of course, we know ourselves only too well how many people there are who are finding it almost impossible to find adequate and appropriate housing at the moment.”

She said she hoped for an “outbreak of peace” in 2025 and for people to find strong communities.

A few kilometres away, Mission Australia held its 49th Christmas Lunch in the Park at Wellington Square for Perth’s most vulnerable.

Organisers expected 1,500 attendees and said it was the largest event of its kind in the country as cost-of-living pressures continued.

WA’s capital is on track to experience its coldest Christmas Day in more than a decade, with the temperature expected to peak at 24 degrees Celsius.

A beach in Western Australia with a large building in the background.

Perth’s beaches were full of people enjoying some festive cheer, despite the milder temperatures.  (ABC News)

Despite the cooler change, beachgoers still flocked to the shore to spend a day in the sun.

Santa stars in Melbourne

Dozens of youngsters attended a Christmas lunch in Melbourne’s north-west to meet Santa as part of Les Twentyman’s annual Christmas Day event aimed at those struggling to put food on the table.

Regular attendants were emotional given it was the first time the event had gone ahead without Mr Twentyman, who died in March.

“This is an event that was very much focused around Les, a very personal event for him,” Les Twentyman Foundation CEO Paul Burke said.

Santa sits as two young girls approach.

Santa Claus was the star of the show at the Les Twentyman Christmas Day event in Melbourne.  (ABC News)

“I think it means an awful lot because without this, they would have … no special Christmas lunch.”

Santa also stopped past the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne alongside some firefighters to greet children who could not be home for Christmas. 

“We get to celebrate Christmas with some kids who don’t get to celebrate it the way everyone else is,” Fire Rescue Victoria’s Brett Hall said.

A man in a firefighters uniform looks serious.

Brett Hall says he was trying to spread some cheer for kids unable to be home this Christmas.  (ABC News)

For the first time in 19 years, the first night of the Jewish festival of Chanukah has fallen on the same date as Christmas Day.

The eight-day festival of light is being celebrated at Federation Square in the Melbourne CBD from Wednesday night at the Pillar of Lights Festival.

“We’re going to gather in the square and we’re going to have multicultural Chanukah, Pillars of Light, which is a celebration for all Victorians to come together,” Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann said.

“I hope everybody takes the light of their faiths and the light from the menorah from Chanukah and adds to it and gives it all over to their communities.”

Giving back in Tassie

In Hobart, a trio of superheroes and Santa made sure children in Royal Hobart Hospital didn’t miss out on the Christmas fun.

Andy Baxter began the tradition 20 years ago to teach his then-three-year-old son Hamish the value of generosity.

“I regarded myself as being very, very fortunate in life,” Mr Baxter said.

“I just wanted him to realise that people sometimes have an unfortunate Christmas Day.”

Three people dressed as Santa, Superman and Batman visit a child in hospital.

Tony Scott (Santa) visits a patient with volunteers Harvey and Hamish Baxter (right). (ABC News)

Hamish is now in his 20s and delivers donated chocolates and presents to unwell children alongside his dad at the Royal Hobart Hospital.

“You see that smile come onto their face, it’s absolutely incredible, it’s something I look forward to doing every year, giving a little bit back,” Andy Baxter said.

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