It was six months before christmas, and all through the house, you could smell christmas-cakes baking, and hear words so pronounced:

You see, it snows in about June, here in the Southern Hemisphere. And that is about the time I will start to prepare for christmas: dusting off my christmas spirit, and rolling up my sleeves to make new decorations and boozy cakes. 

Every family seems to have their own traditions set around holiday seasons. My own family would watch the local santa parade, and attend the various pantomimes, before gathering our small bunch of kin together at my grandparent's house for roast fowl and mashed potatoes. 

I have slowly been forming my own christmas traditions, carried out with joie de vivre well before the big day...

ZOE'S CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS:

1. Consume anything to do with christmas: books, movies and songs.

2. Choose a pine tree to cut down from the nearby forestry, then lug it home on a wheelbarrow in the summer heat.

3. String up popcorn and cranberries.

4. Go christmas window shopping, and gaze at all those stars and spangles.

5. Make a wonky gingerbread cottage, with paned windows and royal icing roofs.

6. Spread glitter all over the floor while making christmas cards.

7. Set out a multitude of homemade and hand-me-down decorations.

8. Attend the candlelight service on christmas eve.