For those of us who grew up with Christmas “weather” involving sunscreen, not sleigh bells, William G. James and John Wheeler’s Christmas Day remains the great corrective: a carol that opens, calmly and unapologetically, with the north wind tossing leaves and red dust over the town.

Yvonne Kenny—an artist who can make English text land as music rather than “words, but sung”—treats it with exactly the right mix of poise and affection. No folksy winks, no postcard kitsch: just a clean, floating line, and that particular Kenny clarity that makes the imagery feel observed rather than advertised. Behind her, the choral/orchestral framing does the smartest thing possible: it doesn’t try to pretend we’re in Bethlehem via Bavaria. It lets the carol be what it is—Christmas, sung in bright light.

If Parterre has room for one more seasonal reset, make it this: an Australian Christmas where the paddocks are brown, the gullies are green, and the singing is, frankly, better behaved than most of us will be by lunchtime.