A Christmas wishlist

As decorations start to proliferate across my lounge room and everywhere else, it really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Well, an Australian Christmas at least.

I'm sure my northern hemisphere friends would scoff at the notion that blazing heat, blinding sun and scorched earth could in any way be remotely connected to Christmas.

While most carols laud snow flakes, trees blanketed in white, and lights twinkling through winter mist, not too many celebrate Aussie Christmas traditions of sweating it out over lunch, jumping in the pool or firing up the air conditioning.

I'd like to wake up to a Christmas morning with snow outside

Just like Bing Crosby, I often dream of a white Christmas (or at least a cool one) and hope to one day spend 25 December in a place that might warrant putting on a jumper.

Should Santa be interested, here's just six places I would love to wake up Christmas morning.

1.  Any Canadian ski resort

I've been to a few Canadian ski resorts in January when the Christmas lights are still up.  If you try really hard you can almost fool yourself into thinking it is Christmas time once more.  The problem is Aussies playing cricket in the snow to celebrate Australia Day on 26 January can ruin this illusion.  But with guaranteed snow and the promise of spending Christmas Day gliding down a slope, what's not to love about the idea of Christmas at a Canadian ski resort.   I don't really care which one, just as long as it snows.

Christmas lights twinkle in the snow

2.  Burton-on-the-Water, England

Each year, this pretty little Cotswolds village puts a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the river that flows through the town's main square.   Apparently sometimes it even snows.

Here my Christmas would entail getting up late on Christmas morning and having a roast lunch in the town's pub, maybe with some mulled wine by the fire!

Burton-on-the-water in Autumn

3.  Paris, France

The City of Lights seems to pretty much dazzle throughout the year, so it would be interesting to see the show it puts on for Christmas.  Surely it's the best place in the world if you're looking for festive food and wine?

4.  Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn's old town looks like it's been plucked from a fairytale, but I can imagine this is turned up a notch at Christmas time.  Each year, the main square is transformed into a Christmas market with a Christmas tree, handicrafts, snow sculptures, food and drink.   Even when I was there in autumn they were already roasting chestnuts on an open fire.

Tallinn cathedral

Insert Christmas into Tallinn's main square

5.   Heidelberg, Germany

It seems many of our Christmas traditions come from Germany anyway, so I'm sure it would be magical to spend the festive season here.   And what better place in Germany than Heidelberg with it's pretty and lively old town?   After a hearty Christmas Eve feast you could keep an eye out for St Nick in the sky as you stroll along the old bridge across the Neckar River.

Heidelberg in Autumn

6.  New York, America

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I haven't spent Christmas in New York.  Thanks to a solid diet of TV specials and movies set in the city I feel like I have already have - possibly with Ally McBeal or Macaulay Culkin in tow.  While there's always the danger that the real thing may not live up to expectations, I'm keen to check out New York at Christmas time... maybe with a cover of snow on Central Park?

Where in the world would you like to spend a Christmas?