Not celebrating Christmas? Here's how non-Christian Australians are spending their day

From saving lives to serving up yum cha, Australia's culturally diverse community is spending Christmas Day in varying ways.

Yum cha, suicide prevention, cheeky gift exchanges and more: Australians who don't celebrate Christmas have their public holidays sorted. Source: Supplied, Getty, Instagram

KEY POINTS:

• Millions of Australians don't identify as Christian and have little connection to the religious holiday.
• Muslims, Buddhists, Jews and atheists are all spending the public holiday in unique ways.
• While some prepare their stomachs for eight doughnuts, others are on the clock to prevent suicide on 25 December.

This article contains references to suicide/self-harm.

For millions of Australians, Christmas Day is a time for families to celebrate a special day together.

But for more than half of the population who don't identify as Christian, it's a day marked on the calendar in various ways.

According to the 2021 Census, 44 per cent of the population said they were Christian, leaving millions of Australians with differing cultural and religious backgrounds without the same spiritual connection to the public holiday.

While scores of non-practising Australians take advantage of the public holiday with a beach trip or a barbecue with the family, here's what some other Australians are doing on 25 December.

Saving a life

Mohammad Awad, 23, will be checking in for his shift at his Sydney-based public hospital in the suicide prevention outreach team in the hopes he can save a life.

"People need support all throughout the year. Crisis of suicide and self-harm doesn't take a break. It doesn't stop on public holidays," he said.

"On days like Christmas, (it) can actually get worse for some people who are celebrating alone, or feeling lonely, or celebrating for the first time without a family (member) who's passed away."

Mohammad Awad, 23, is a peer worker in the suicide prevention outreach team at a Sydney-based hospital. Source: Supplied / Mohammad Awad

Lifeline has also warned it is expecting to receive an influx of calls during the Christmas break, with 4,000 people anticipated to come through its contact centres in one week alone.

Mr Awad, who is Muslim, said he is happy to give up a summer's day for such important community work, despite it being a heavy load to take on.

And he rests assured that come his religious holiday, Eid, a non-Muslim colleague will cover his shift so he can celebrate with his loved ones.

"There's a sense sometimes we're all covering for each other — the Muslims who are covering for the Christians who are covering for the Hindus," Mr Awad said.

"We're all kind of sharing and acknowledging that, for cultural reasons and religious reasons, everyone has their own days off that the government doesn't acknowledge yet, so we fill those gaps where we can."

A doughnut a day - then eight

Tony, a Jewish man in Perth, has been spending the past week celebrating Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights.

He is among the 100,000 Jews in Australia who celebrate the special eight-day holiday with food, family, prayer and candles.

This year, Christmas has landed on the second-last day of Hanukkah, where Tony will be lighting his seventh candle on the Hanukkah menorah and enjoying sufganiyot (jam doughnuts) and potato latkes.

But among the conventional celebrations of Hanukkah, Sydney-based rabbi Paul Lewin described a "wonderful" tradition that the Jewish community in Australia indulges in annually.

"That's called the doughnut challenge, and that's for each night of Hanukkah to eat one doughnut. So tonight is one doughnut but when it gets to day eight you need to eat eight doughnuts."

Oil-fried doughnuts are called sufganiyot, typically eaten during the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. Source: Getty / David Silverman

Mr Lewin explained that doughnuts and other oil-based foods are all symbolic features of Hanukkah, to commemorate the oil they believe miraculously burnt for eight days so that the Jews could reclaim the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

Yum cha open for all

While most shopfronts and restaurants are closed on 25 December, Katrina Ma has 30 staff on deck at a popular Cantonese restaurant - and is gearing up for one of the busiest days in the year.

Palace Chinese in Sydney's CBD is a Cantonese restaurant that remains open on Christmas Day. Source: Supplied / Katrina Ma

Ms Ma, general manager of Palace Chinese in Sydney's CBD, said patrons pack out the restaurant on Christmas Day every year, particularly during lunchtime when yum cha is served.

She said while main shops like Woolworths and Coles are closed, Christmas landing on Sunday is an important day to keep open for families of all backgrounds - who do and don't celebrate the holiday.

"Part of the customers don't have a tradition to celebrate on Christmas day so they come in as normal, having a meal at our restaurant. Or they might be having a gathering and coming to celebrate together," she said.

Palace Chinese has 30 staff on deck to cater for the busy Christmas Day rush. Source: Supplied / Katrina Ma

Most of Palace Chinese's staff are either Buddhist or atheist and are happy to work on the public holiday to keep the Cantonese tradition of yum cha alive on the weekends when they are most busy.

"We have some ladies pushing the trolley to keep the traditional Cantonese style so people can pick whatever they like on the trolley and our staff can also talk to the customers to provide a good service," she said.

"We are really, really happy that we can still keep it open."

Muslims on a date with Bad Santa

For Tala Mansour, a 25-year-old Lebanese-Muslim based in Sydney, Christmas and the fun festivities that are attached to it can be enjoyed by everyone.

She's rallied 22 of her family members to play 'Bad Santa' on Christmas day, a cheeky gifting game where participants can steal gifts opened together in a gathering.

Ms Mansour said she first learnt of the game during university when she was invited to play with her clinical masters' peers, despite not being Muslim.

"I thoroughly enjoyed my experience that I shared with everyone that night playing bad Santa — the laughs, the cheeky competition, the joy it brought us all — and I wanted my family to experience the same thing," she said.

Tala Mansour (left, centre) and her extended family gather on Christmas Day to enjoy the public holiday, despite not celebrating Christmas. Source: Supplied / Tala Mansour

Having gone to a racially-diverse school in Sydney's southwest, she said she was always taught to celebrate and respect all cultures - hers and others included.

"Our school time was spent making Ramadan lanterns to decorate our classrooms and creating Easter egg baskets and sending Christmas cards to each other.

"It was the most wonderful experience where we were all seen and all our faiths and cultures were celebrated. It brought us all together, showing us how each religion at the core is the same."

Readers seeking crisis support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 and Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 (for young people aged up to 25). More information and support with mental health is available at BeyondBlue.org.au and on 1300 22 4636.

Embrace Multicultural Mental Health supports people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.