A Merry Melbourne Christmas

Having grown up in the northern hemisphere, having a mid-summer Christmas is a weird experience. Growing up, Christmas was always a cold and wet period, and if we were lucky we might get some snow. Turn that completely on its head and you have Christmas in Australia. Last year I spent it in Melbourne for the second time. It still feels weird, but it also feels Christmassy, and here’s why.

Despite it being in the high 20s most days, the place is still decorated the same way as it is in England. Cristmas trees, snowmen, pretty lights and stars. Whatever you might expect to find at home, you’ll get in Australia. Snowmen look ridiculous in this climate, but it all adds towards the festive feel. The only reason I put duplicate pictures is so you can see that the lights actually change colour, by the way 🙂

It isn’t just the city that gets decorated though, most of the shops chip in. There’re even the famous Myer windows. The queue to get by the window and see them all is insanely long. The windows, if seen in order, tell a story. This year happened to be Santa Claus and the 3 bears. I think. Thankfully I’m relatively tall and can just peer over everyone to see without queueing up all night!

Here’s one of the windows as an example of what I’m talking about.

There were even huge real Christmas trees around, with a ton of stuff for kids to do. A little bit like a faire if you get what I mean. Granted, the lighting wasn’t particularly great there so my pictures are dull and blurry. It’s also hard to somehow dodge the thousands of people that turned up to see them all.

On top of all this, there was a whole show at Crown, with baubles which open up to reveal Christmas “characters” so to speak, such as Rudolph. All to the timing of some great Christmas music. Doesn’t get much better than that. It was such a hit that every time the show started the crowds would pack into Crown and sit all up the huge staircase just to watch and take pictures.

The City even went as far as to “paint” buildings such as the Town Hall with vibrant colours that mimicked wrapping paper and Christmassy patterns. Needless to say the crowds had made it here too. But then again, all of the people there only added to the warm, friendly, festive atmosphere than run rampant through the City over the holidays.

I can’t really conclude this post though. Christmas in Melbourne is awesome, and hopefully it’ll become a common occurrence for me in the future. Here’s to hoping, and apologies for the slightly (4 months woo!) delayed post.

Have you spent Christmas anywhere “exotic” or so far away from home that it just felt completely different? I’d love for you to share your experiences with me too, so go ahead and let me know!!