Ah so it's Christmas again for another year!

For the first time in a long time, I went to a Carols by Candlelight event about a week ago ... I was especially amused at the following adaptation of "Jingle Bells" to the Australian way of life!

Dashing through the bush
In a rusty Holden ute
Kicking up the dust
Esky in the boot
Kelpie by my side
Singing Christmas songs
It's summer time and I am in
My singlet, shorts and thongs

CHORUS:
OH! Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
Jingle all the way
Christmas in Australia
On a scorching summer day, Hey!
Jingle bells, Jingle bells
Christmas time is beaut!
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a rusty Holden ute

Engine's getting hot
Dodge the kangaroos
Swaggy climbs aboard
He is welcome too
All the family is here
Sitting by the pool
Christmas day, the Aussie way
By the barbeque!

CHORUS

Come the afternoon
Grandpa has a doze
The kids and uncle Bruce
Go swimming in their clothes
The time comes round to go
We take a family snap
Then pack the car and all shoot through
Before the washing up

CHORUS

Unfortunately, not even a reasonable amount of Google-fu was able to find an original author of this variant (it does appear on a pile of websites but none claim to be the original author nor do they cite to the original author) so until I find out more I'll need to credit it to that prolific bard, "Anonymous". Of course if anyone has a verifiable lead on who the actual author is, please do drop me a note!

I think I'll leave it there for a while so the non-Australians reading this can be thoroughly confused before posting some clarifications! ;-P

UPDATE: Thanks to Craig Howie from CSE/UNSW for letting me know who the original author was! These lyrics were written by Colin Buchanan in 1992 (www.colinbuchanan.com.au). He did an ABC story on this in 2002, see http://www.abc.net.au/backyard/stories/s740561.htm for details!