The Australian Christmas carols that should be on your playlist
Winter carols don't quite work with the summer Christmas season in Australia. (Unsplash: David Beale)
Are you stuck listening to Let It Snow while figuring out how to crank your aircon?
Most Australians can't have chestnuts roasting on an open fire because there's usually a fire ban in December.
"Even my favourite carol line of all time, 'let steeple bells be swungen' is a little off for an Aussie summer," says Vanessa Hughes, the presenter of ABC Classic Drive.
"Let pints in pubs be drunken" seems more apt for Christmas here," she says.
But fear not.
From Carol of the Birds to Christmas in the Sun, Australian composers have been coming up with seasonally appropriate Christmas carols for decades.
"This year's Classic Choir song, Christmas in the Sun, perfectly captures our antipodean holiday vibes," Hughes says.
These carols won't give you brain freeze from dreaming of a white Christmas.
Classic Australian Christmas carols
If you've heard any Australian Christmas carols or sung them at school, there's a good chance they're by William G James.
He composed three books of Australian Christmas carols.
One of James's most famous carols is Carol of the Birds, sometimes called Orana based on the words of the chorus.
James had the Australian answer to Northern Hemisphere carols.
The Three Drovers, the Australian stand-in for shepherds, ride across the plain when the air is thick with summer heat and smoke is on the yellow moon.
Talking about Australian sky, The Silver Star, which has a lovely treble solo, is another famous tune by James.
Loading...James was a longtime music director at the ABC.
Many of his tunes were published during his tenure and found their way into songbooks for primary schools in the 50s and 60s.
A summer celebration
More recently, ABC Classic has been expanding Australian Christmas carol collections with the Classic Choir songbook.
If you grew up here, or have lived in Australia for some time, you know that Christmas falls in the summer.
We mark the season of sunshine by trying to stay cool, spending time with family and eating.
Many Australian Christmas carols immortalise these moments.
In 2020, when the COVID-19 lockdowns restricted our ability to sing or be with our loved ones, ABC Classic launched the virtual Classic Choir.
Deborah Cheetham Fraillon wrote Christmas With You, and 1,500 people submitted videos of themselves singing the song.
Loading...In 2023, Gardening Australia host Clarence Slockee wrote new words for the classic, Oh Christmas Tree, honouring First Nations languages around Australia.
This Australian take of Oh Christmas Tree (Yerrbill with Clarence), was arranged by Joseph Twist.
Loading...Other carols include Katie Noonan's All is Love, Elena Kats-Chernin's quintessential Summer Together and another addition from Cheetham Fraillon: The Christmas Card.
After launching five successful carols, the Classic Choir project wraps up in 2025 with Joseph Twist's brand new carol: Christmas in the Sun.
The carol will be premiered on December 14 by the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs at the Sydney Opera House, and broadcast live on ABC Classic at 2pm.
Aussie Christmas in pop culture
Over the years, Australian artists have written some Christmas hits which now reside deep in our collective psyche.
Comedy duo Colin Buchanan and Greg Champion, performing as Bucko & Champs, have adapted familiar Christmas jingles in an Australian context.
Most people would probably assign ultimate Christmas classic status to Paul Kelly's 1996 ballad How To Make Gravy, about a man called Joe who writes a letter home from prison.
Loading...The song became a movie in 2024, and earlier this year Kelly released Rita Wrote a Letter, which details what happens when Joe is released.
Other artists might not be as dramatic as Joe's family but, as we all know, Christmas can be difficult for some.
Stella Donnelly's Seasons Greetings explores this family tension when an estranged relative turns up.
The history of the estrangement is first revealed through what they did with the gravy, and from there tension mounted until insults are hurled.
Australians love our summertime Christmas with its glorious sunshine, surf and stars.
Christine Anu's Island Christmas captures all of these tropical beauties with a powerful love letter filled with colours, laughter and music.