This is the Friends Vista Debating Society.

I'm John Batchel in New England, North Temperate Zone, with a foot of snow near two, and lots of cold for a week and a half, maybe rain, maybe more snow in the next 24 hours.

In other words, it's wintertime.

Just past Christmas, we had a white Christmas. We had a really

heavy storm the day after Christmas. It's cold. I've been on the snowblower, cleaning up what I can.

My fingers and toes don't necessarily respond right now. So I'm welcoming my colleague,

Jeremy Zackas. He's in New South Wales, Greater Sydney.

And for Jeremy, Christmas time is barbecue. For me, it's cold fingers and cold hands.

Jeremy, I think we describe the severe conditions in both directions. So a good day to you. What is Christmas

Day like in summertime? Good evening. You know, John? Well, Christmas in summertime is

exactly the opposite to what you just described. It is truly, truly spectacular. It's warm,

it's clear. It is all outdoors weather. And I can say here in Sydney

on Christmas Day, we had temperatures around about the mid-80s. So it wasn't too hot, wasn't too

cold, but absolutely perfect to get outside with the barbecue, which is exactly what we did on

Christmas Day. We were outside, barely any wind around, clear blue skies, 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and not

a care in the world. It really is a quintessential Aussie Christmas here. Some parts of the country

weren't so lucky. It was a little bit hotter. I can say Adelaide had around about 100 degrees

Fahrenheit. Western Australia was even hotter at about 105 in some parts, but John, truly,

any Christmas in Australia is pretty much exactly the opposite there in the Northern

Hemisphere. And while we do love to complain a little bit about the heat, you know, we truly

love it because it means we can go outside, we have the barbecues, we go down to the beach,

and we truly do everything pretty much in the outdoors.

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