A "White Christmas" in Australia is an unlikely to nearly impossible prospect, as Christmas falls during Australia's summer.
However, passengers on a recent cruise that embarked during the holiday season did get a "White Christmas" of sorts.
Only not involving any snow.
During what was described by The Sydney Morning Heraldas "a Christmas themed event" towards the end of a recent eight-night voyage of the Pacific Explorer from Melbourne to Tasmania and Kangaroo Island, in which the ship's staff competed in a costume competition, the housekeeping staff's costume selection raised more than a few eyebrows among the ship's passengers.
Their all-white attire, which included pointed, cone-shaped white hoods that covered their faces, was unsettlingly reminiscent of the American White supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan.
A video taken by one of the ship's passengers eventually started making rounds on the internet, including the X (formerly Twitter) account Daily Loud:
The 34-second video shows the staff emerging in their unmissable outfits, while the voice of the woman taking the video can be heard saying (with accompanying overlay), "Know what happened," before identifying the people in the white outfits as "housekeeping."
While the housekeeping staff was met with a handful of cheers, including a "woo" from the woman taking the video, the cheers can be heard slowly evolving into "boos" as they continue to walk along the deck of the ship.
One passenger, identified by Daily Mail Australia as "Terri," claimed that the cheerful celebrating of the ship's passengers watching the parade came to a shocking halt:
"There was a lot excitement then it all went quiet."
"The lack of judgement was astounding."
"Everyone was there, everyone gathered, it was advertised, there was a lot of noise and it went dead quiet, just silent."
Terri went on to tell Daily Mail Australia that at least one passenger dubbed their vacation "The KKK Cruise" after seeing the costumes.
Lynne Scrivens, communications director for P&O Cruises Australia, wasted no time in jumping to the defense of the housekeeping staff following the backlash to their costumes.
As reported by the The Sydney Morning Herald, she went live on Sydney radio station 2GB making it clear that there was no ill intent from the housekeeping staff, who, being from all over the world, were oblivious to their costumes resemblance to the KKK, and clarifying what their costumes were meant to represent.
"Come on."
"No one can seriously think that was their intention."
"They were taking part in a Christmas family fun day on the ship as part of our Christmas crew."
"It was a tug-of-war event where the crew dress up, and our housekeeping crew decided to dress up as snow cones."
"Our crew are from different cultures all over the world."
"They’re young, and they had just never heard of that organization or what their outfits could symbolize."
In addition, Scrivens pointed out that living and working on a cruise ship gave the housekeeping staff limited resources when it came to making costumes, as they couldn't go shopping at a costume supply store, and instead added the white hoods to their regular cleaning uniforms in an effort to appear as "upside down snow cones."
Scrivens further emphasized that the housekeeping staff was only seen on the deck of the ship in their costumes for a very short time, and were "horrified" and "very apologetic" upon learning their costumes were misconstrued by passengers.
Viewers of the video on X, however, had some trouble buying Scrivens's explanation, finding it hard to believe they wouldn't have made the connection themselves, while also having trouble seeing how those costumes could have possibly resembled snow cones:
There were a select few who did give the housekeeping staff the benefit of the doubt, feeling they genuinely didn't realize their costumes resembled the KKK, which might not strike the same chord with people outside the U.S.
P&O Cruises Australia would later make a formal statement regarding the "distress" the "inappropriate" costumes worn by the housekeeping staff caused, further backing up Scrivens' claim that there was no malice or ill-intent, but that they as a company would make sure nothing comparable ever happens again:
"We sincerely apologize for any offense this caused passengers and the broader community."
"Staff have been counseled around this incident and we will ensure this does not happen again."
