I love Christmas.
I am THAT person that on the 1st of December has Christmas explode in their house when the decorations go up and the music goes on (and who is bopping to Rocking Around the Christmas Tree, Santa Claus is Coming To Town and Silent Night and many other songs in the car)
I love this time of year when people seem nicer to each other and complete strangers wish each other a Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays. I love the family coming together and spending time with each other (in this busy world we don't get as many opportunities to get together as much as we used to when the kids were small.
I love the fact that my kids still have fun at Christmas time and still keep up with childhood traditions of Christmas Eve movies and decorations as presents, stockings and tree presents even though they are all in their twenties now.
I love the feeling of magic that is in the air this time of year, whether you believe in the real reason for Christmas or not (as in the birth of Jesus and not Santa)
and whatever your belief system you have, I think that 'peace on earth' and 'good will to all men(and women)' is something we should all strive for.
I love Christmas lights and if I am driving home after sunset I sometimes take a longer route home to see if I can see houses with Christmas lights on them, so this year I decided to head into the city to see what Christmas displays Melbourne had to offer.
This is a matter of contention as Australia is known as being a very multi-cultural country and we embrace all cultures but somehow along the way we have forgotten that you can appreciate and respect other cultures while keeping your own traditions and beliefs. There are many schools who no longer have Christmas concerts and now have end of year concerts and some councils don't have Christmas decorations up and I do understand that it can offend people of other religions but I am one of those people that think we should celebrate all things, if it's Divali and Eid or Hannukah and Christmas. I figure if we know about each other's religions and festive holidays than there wouldn't be so much crap going on in the world...
Anyway enough of my rant and back to the good stuff.....
Christmas lights and celebrations....
Jenna, Linda and I headed in to the city in search of Christmas and found it at the Crown Casino which has a great display in their atrium, with baubles that open as Christmas music is played, there are beautifully decorated trees and on the way to the atrium there were lots of photo ops which we had fun with as you can see.
From the casino we made our way down Southbank (to be sadly disappointed by the lack of decorations) but not of the views of the river, it was fairly magical today with the sun shining through the thunderous clouds.
From here we headed to Federation Square (it was still too early to appreciate the light show but we made our way back later when it was dark to enjoy the lights in full colour ) and onto the Town Hall which had a light show as well.
We moved back to the Myers Christmas windows which were NOT!!!! There was an 'Alice in Wonderland' theme which was meh and I was a little disappointed!!!!
But the lights of the decorations and the Christmas tree
back at Fed Square made up for any disappointment and we even got to write something which was displayed for a minute on one of the walls (first picture on this page)....long enough to get some photos and admire my own artwork and feel like a kid again as I looked around in wonder at all the Christmas lights.
I love the fact that even now I still get excited by Christmas and I hope that my excitement for this time of family and giving never goes away.
