Backpackers are trading in snow for sunburn, swimming and dancing at the popular holiday spot in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
The beach was packed with revellers, but the biggest queue was for the Sunburnt Christmas dance party in the Bondi Pavilion on the foreshore.
For Irishman Michael Nicoll, Christmas Day at the beach is a far cry from the near-horizontal rain he's used to back home.
"We've been in Australia a long time, travelling along the coast," he told AAP.
"In Ireland, it's raining so you don't get people at the beach this time of year. I go sometimes, when it's a nice day, which is pretty rarely." "But there's no alcohol allowed here and we got tickets to the dance party so we have nine litres of goon (cask wine) we have to drink before we go anywhere.
"Once we get rid of the goon we'll go back in." But for some, no matter how many bronzed bodies wearing Christmas hats there are, it doesn't feel like the season.
"If we were home it would be snowing," said Julie Elsner, 21, from Denmark.
"I don't believe it's Christmas, it's so different. So far from reality." "You try to get in the Christmas mood. We've been eating Christmas pudding like they do back home and listening to Christmas music, but it still feels weird." A ban on alcohol on the beach has made for an easy Christmas for lifeguard Harry Nightingale.
Even the water is in on it, he said.
"It's a lifeguard's dream. There's no swell, very little rip." "A few years ago it was a bit of a free for all - they brought eskies down to the beach and set fire to them.
"Since then there's been a bit of control." "They don't want alcohol at the beach and that's deterred people." He warns that people who aren't used to the water can get carried away by even small surf.
"We have a lot of people of Asian origin who are not really familiar with the water," he said.
"We nearly lost a Vietnamese man yesterday. It doesn't really require it to be super dangerous for us to lose people." "The poms and the Irish too - they don't come from an ocean culture." Yunhe Lee, 31, said she isn't used to the water. In her home country of South Korea, she would have to travel four hours from Seoul to the nearest beach.
"I've been here four years, studying here. I come here every year because at Christmas I like to relax, eat food and just sleep." she said.
"In Korea it's winter at the moment. I just stay around the beach though, I don't like to swim."
