I discovered I had two copies in my collection of books about Christmas.

Released on Sunday, December 12, 2004 at about 4:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Go-Go Bar coffee shop, Darlinghurst in Sydney, New South Wales Australia.

RELEASE NOTES:

BookCrossing itme doesn't seem to register. So here is the detail: sometime Monday morning, Dec 13.

Spotted at the Go-Go. Maybe this will still be there next time, but I hope someone picks it up because it's probably quite interesting.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to katyan in Finland, a winner of my October Clearance RABCK. Enjoy!

What a surprise! This book arrived here today after its long 3 months journey! Thank you so much! It looks really interesting! I hope to read it before next Christmas :)!

This was a wonderfull book about Australian Christmas! And it was a wonderfull book to read during my Christmas holidays! I really enjoyed the stories, even I didn't have time to read all of them (I promised to give this book away as a prize for a Finnish challenge where the participants needed to give a little Christmas present for their postman), and I had to hurry up in reading the stories. But it was such a lovely book! So many great illustrations of which some of them were so hilarious! And it was nice that there were so many authors writing this book, and that it included also songs, recipies, letters, etc...
Thank you for sharing this treasure, let's see to whom it might travel next!:)
And Merry Christmas from Satya (in the picture) & me!

Thank you, katyan and Satya!

I already flicked through to see pictures of people celebrating Christmas. I wonder if they are all lunatics in Australia?

Lovely, entertaining, and with its special illustration, this book has been a little too dear to me to let go. But now it is Christmas and this is Bookcrossing, so

A Merry Christmas to Joika!

Thank you, ruzena! This was the book of the day 15 from the Christmas Advent Calendar from the Finnish BC forum. I am a person who likes Christmas and antologies so it hit the target. :) I already read the introduction and some poems, but did not yet allow me to look at the illustrations even though they certainly tried to draw my attention! May this book bring me gaiety and entertainment at the merriest time of the year. Merry Christmas to you all.

While being on an autumn holiday "at the homestead" in southern Finnish Lapland I read this book. The snow has come here but it is melting away as the weather turns from snowing to sleeting to raining. Maybe I'll attach a pic to the journal entry from my walking tour just for fun, let's see.

But about the book and the stories. It is a historical portrait of the lives of the settlers in Australia. And of course also of the Christmas celebration of theirs but I see its value and message elsewhere than rejoicing the Christmas. The toil and the hardship due to the challenging circumstances, nature, give something to think about for a person of the present who celebrates the christmas and lives the life in general in such a material abundance. We just forget what it was like for those who built our future. The stories depict circumstances such as bushfires and battle against them, the unbearable drought, the life of swagmen, the underpaidness of the working girls in the factories to name a few. But certainly there are also more cheerful ones, like those describing the christmas food or the jolly drinking occasions. And the most important message is that in the time of hardship the people usually found the joy of christmas from simple pleasures and the good will among people. Those moments portayed in the stories were the ones that touched me.. I would almost say profoundly.

On its way to another bookcrosser in Finland. It may take awhile.

I'm trying to take care of this for a while.

Aussie xmas! Woot! Thank you!

I read this in February after not having a proper winter here in Finland. I bet this would've been even better to read during a really cool, snowy winter. Of course, the australian Christmas is anything but cold & snowy...

I did enjoy reading about the traditions and events in the "old" Australia. In James & Lionel I realized I have read way too many detective stories as I was waiting for someone to die... Some dialects were harder to follow for me and one story seemed to lack all commas. I liked that there were different types of narratives; stories, songs, poems, diary entries... And written by different people.

The book has a purple cover so this goes well for duffeli's challenge :)
And another Finnish challenge, Helmet (#1), as this book is older than me, published in 1966.

This book will leave by mail to em64 who won my Christmas Calendar draw (day 23) on the Finnish forum :) Merry Christmas!

The book arrived today. And what a lovely surprise it was. Aussie Christmas is definitely something I know very little about so it will be interesting to read. Warm thanks also for the lovely add-ons that were accompanying the book.

Maybe I should have read this at the Christmas time as I couldn't really get into the stories. Some of them were interesting and told about life in Australia in the 19th century. And then there were stories that could have happened in England as the people tried really hard to create a similar Christmas as back home. I would have liked to read a little bit more about what the indigenous people did during this time before the first settlers arrived.

Kirja lähtee postin matkassa jatkamaan matkaansa.

The book has arrived safely and it looks like a real gem, thank you so much! I think I'll read it over the holidays.