You can keep your “Winter Wonderland” and “Let It Snow.” As an Australian, those Christmas songs speaking of cold weather and chestnuts roasting make no sense. As the mercury soars, there’s no way we’d ever have one of those open fires!

Here we have our own Christmas songs, like the stunning “How to Make Gravy” by Paul Kelly.

What I love most about this song is its honesty. Don’t expect Australians to tie things up in a neat red bow. We know the importance of family and tradition at Christmas time, but we also know it doesn’t always work out that way.

It might not have that joyous sing-along quality that many of the standards have, but the lack of Christmas cheese puts it a cut above the rest for me!