The 12 days of Christmas may be over but Ian Jarrett hopes it's not forever.

After moving from England to Australia, I thought I would never get used to Christmas where the sun shone all day, the beach was full of people sharing champagne for breakfast, and the dogs ran around with bits of red and silver tinsel tied to their collars.

Where, I wondered, were the flurries of sleet, the Christmas lights blinking through murky dusks, and the carol singers looking for mulled wine and a slice of Christmas cake – not to mention a few silver coins to supplement their Christmas unemployment benefit.

White Christmases were few and far between - mostly they were the fantasies of Christmas card designers - but nevertheless it seemed that you couldn't have a true Christmas unless there was frost on the window panes, Jingle Bells on the radio and a man roasting chestnuts on an open fire.

In Australia, we've dabbled with cold meals of rock lobster, prawns and crabs but it's never seemed quite appropriate, so this year it was back to the staples of turkey on the Weber barbecue, ham, duck and roast vegetables – even home-made, brandy-flamed Christmas pudding and Stilton to follow. All washed down with ice-cold sparkling shiraz, of course.

The kids were at home to make present giving more enjoyable (last year it was Ipods, this year – I think they're becoming more domesticated – it was food blenders and slow cookers).

It seems to me that Christmas is a tradition worth hanging on to, although not, it appears, at my local supermarket which already has Easter eggs on the shelves alongside the half price Christmas decorations.

Elsewhere around the world, the politically correct corps is steadily gaining ground in its crusade to extinguish the Christmas spirit.

In the United States, they are doing their best to avoid any mention of the word Christmas, lest it offends local non-Christians.

In the UK, one council re-named the holiday "Winterval", one firm banned cards and presents, and a town torn down its decorations.

Asked by journalists if he was offended by Christmas celebrations, a leading Muslim cleric in the UK, responded, "Not at all, I love it."

Hallelujah! Maybe I can pack away the decorations knowing they will be back up next year in defiance of the miserable anti-Christmas crowd.

Enough of this, though, I have to head down to the supermarket in case they sell out of Easter.



IAN JARRETT is based in Fremantle, Western Australia from where he travels frequently in Asia on assignments for travel magazines.

He is a member of the BamBoo Alliance, a group of leading travel writers in the region. He can be contacted at ianjarrett@mac.com