By Alyssa Talakovski
At Tahnee O’Neile’s house, Santa is coming early.
O’Neile plans to celebrate with her two young sons and mother on the 21st, enjoying festivities while alternating Christmases with her ex-partner’s family.
Tahnee O’Neile will celebrate Christmas early this year, as more families choose alternative dates for their family events. Credit: Paul Harris
“So much emphasis [is] put on the big day,” the Brisbane mother says. “As long as you’ve got each other, that’s all that matters.”
Navigating distance, family politics and work schedules, many Australian families now opt for a date other than December 25 to celebrate Christmas.
While not having the children on Christmas can be a challenge, O’Neile says celebrating early means she doesn’t have to queue up for seafood when “everyone’s busy, stressed and rushed”.
Australian Retailers Association chief industry affairs officer, Fleur Brown agrees Australians are embracing the festive spirit early in 2024.
Roy Morgan data reveals 53 per cent of shoppers began purchasing Christmas gifts in mid-October this year. Brown says many are leveraging Black Friday sales at the end of November to find presents.
While the festive season is often joyful and celebratory, it can also be immensely stressful, says Sydney family therapist Jacqueline McDiarmid, who says it’s not uncommon to celebrate Christmas early.
“More and more people are choosing to take control of how they celebrate. Perhaps because, for many, Christmas is not [primarily] a religious celebration but a family celebration,” McDiarmid says.
Mikaela Armstrong, her husband and their two children, from Melbourne’s Bayside, celebrated Christmas on the December 7 with her husband’s family in Ballarat. “It was a nice way to get the extended family together, which doesn’t happen very often,” she says.
With family spread across regional Victoria, she says travelling to see everyone on Christmas Day is too far. While early Christmas celebrations require advanced planning for gifts, holiday events throughout the month create a “stress-free occasion,” she says.
Although she will still celebrate Christmas Day, it will just be her family of four, eliminating travel time and allowing quality time together.
“I know many people who spread out Christmas celebrations to accommodate both sides of the family,” she says.
Courtney Babic’s family of seven are among the 12 per cent of Australian families who are blended or stepfamilies. With five children – two daughters from her husband John’s previous marriage, Babic’s two sons, and their shared youngest – the lifestyle influencer from Newcastle in NSW says Christmas is “very much about being flexible”.
Although Christmas Day is delayed this year, as John’s daughters will celebrate with their mother, festivities have begun ahead of time.
She agrees that celebrations don’t have to be on Christmas Day to make them special – “I think we put that pressure on ourselves to say, well, yes, it has to be on [the] day.”
Sydney Fish Markets communications manager Stephanie Margrain says visits and purchases noticeably increase in early December and “continue to climb” through Christmas and New Year’s.
However, early Christmas celebrations are not the only factor; people prefer lighter food as the weather warms, year-end festivities increase, and tourism booms, she says.
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