Every December we sing about a white Christmas while the cicadas hum and the prawns hit the barbie. So is a white Christmas in Australia impossible? Not really!

Yes, it has snowed at Christmas

Now and then, a cold summer change brings a Christmas surprise. Tasmania woke to snow on kunanyi/Mount Wellington on Christmas Day 2025, and back in 2006, holidaymakers in Thredbo spent Christmas Day building snowmen. Rare? Yes. Impossible? Not at all.

Just snow? Any snow animals?

For that, I had to go much further south. I was lucky enough to visit Macquarie Island, a tiny, windswept, World Heritage-listed piece of Australia halfway to Antarctica, where even in summer a brief flurry of snow can drift down and melt away.

No wonder Antarctic explorer Sir Douglas Mawson called it "one of the wonder spots of the world"

Stepping ashore, the air was full of penguin calls. Royal penguins with golden crests waddled past us, curious rather than fearful. King penguins stood tall in their orange collars, rockhoppers bounced across the rocks, sleepy elephant seals barely lifted an eye, and albatrosses glided overhead.

What moved me most was the peace of it all — penguins, seals and seabirds sharing the same beaches, none of them afraid of us. It felt like stepping into a world where everything lives in harmony: the truest kind of Christmas wonder.

Can't make it to the Southern Ocean this year? Bring a little wonder home with our handcrafted decorations, each with its own story from a special corner of the world.

Your turn

Have you spent Christmas somewhere memorable? Share your story in the comments below.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Christmas Wonder!