As Christmas falls in Australasia at Midsummer, it has different characteristics from those in England, and the word hastherefore a different connotation.
1852. Mrs. Meredith, `My Home in Tasmania,' p. 184:
«Sheep-shearing in November, hot midsummer weather atChristmas, the bed of a river the driest walk, and cornharvest in February, were things strangely at variancewith my Old-World notions.»
1896. H. Lawson, `When the World was Wide,' p. 164:
«One Christmas time when months of drought
Had parched the western creeks,
The bush-fires started in the north
And travelled south for weeks.»
n. an Australian tree, Ceratopetalum gummiferum, Smith, N.O. Saxifrageae. Called also Christmas-tre...
Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris
n. In Australia, it is the sameas Christmas-bush (q.v.). In New Zealand, it is Metrosideros tomento...
Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris