Since it was Christmas eve and we were in Australia at the beach, we got into our own swimming gear, took our food and wine and went over to the beach!

When we got to the beach at around 6pm, there was still some swimming going on, but most people had gone home or were dusting the sand off to do so. Of course, we couldn’t resist the temptation to play around on the beach with our Christmas hats on. Later on we made a ‘Christmas card’ out of them to send to our friends back at home, who are sitting in the rain and cold. Of course we only did this with the best of intentions to brighten their day!

I don’t know if people were getting hungry or had enough of us, but when sundown set in we were practically the last ones on Gnarabup beach itself. So while we sat there, enjoyed our Mount Barker Shiraz and the leftover cheeses from Bunbury’s farmers market, we enjoyed the setting sun, the sea, the peace and quiet – with live Christmas carols and piano music in the background coming from the White Elephant beach cafe a little further down. Quite magical.

While I always celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th of December, here in Australia they do Christmas lunch on Christmas Day (the 25th). Since this is one of Australia’s two major holidays (they other one being, awkwardly enough for a non-religious country, Good Friday) it was difficult to find a place that was open. But no worries (I think I am getting the hang of this..!), we found ourselves something nice in the end: Christmas Day Buffet at Pullman Bunker Bay Resort.

Since this was Christmas lunch, I first spent the morning reading and lying in the sun on the beach. Of course I wasn’t the only one with this idea, not even the only one to put a Christmas hat on. There were many people over there, chillin’ and having their family gathering in the sand.

We arrived at Pullman’s spot on at 4pm and were promptly greeted with a nice glass of sparkling wine.

And let me tell you: the buffet did not disappoint. Better yet, let me show you:

And this was only the dessert table! So you can imagine how full I was at the end of the day: like a Christmas cracker ready to pop!