Melbourne for Christmas 2025

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Christmas 2025 finds us in Melbourne city centre bunking down (literally) in a friend’s apartment

We are just here for 3 nights while our friend does Christmas with his family. It’s an opportunity for us to explore the city, even though much of it is closed!

First up was a drive around some of the further flung areas.

Luna Park with the world’s oldest wooden roller coaster (we didn’t go on) and an entrance like something out of a Stephen King novel!
The old and extremely expensive beach huts reminiscent of Bournemouth
St Kilda’s once a red light district and now home to the most amazing cake shops.
Heaven on earth

As it was Christmas Eve we were advised to go to the carols by Candlelight in what is known as The Bowl, a natural amphitheater in a Central Park. Apparently people take folding chairs and picnics and listen to the music. We had travelled a lot and were quite tired but thought we would sit at the edge for a few songs then have an early night.

On arrival we discovered that it is now a ticketed event but just as we were at the entrance two ladies behind us asked if we needed tickets as they had two free ones going spare. What a coincidence! These tickets were for the premium seated part of the arena. Apparently one of the performers had complimentary tickets for his family who couldn’t come so gave to these ladies and their family didn’t want to come either so they let us join them.

It turned out to be quite an extravaganza with razzmatazz, glitz and sparkle from many major Australian stars of stage and screen, none of whom we had heard of! But they sang well.

The kind ladies who invited us in.

The music was lovely and featured Christmas songs as well as carols. To our surprise the whole thing was featured on Australian television and in our seats we were caught in the cameras! it was quite magical as the sun set and everyone waved candles.

It was packed (all these hundreds of people hadn’t just shown up and got priority seats!)

As you can see we were wrapped up because to our great surprise it is quite chilly here. 16 degrees and windy. It’s like a British summers day if you are in the sunshine but decidedly chilly otherwise. we managed 2 hours of the concert before the cold got the better of us.

Christmas Day itself was a walking around the city experience with visits to…

The State Library … but it was closed
Hosier Street with its iconic graffiti walls
And a monument to the Australian women who have been killed or stolen in the last 2 years. Very moving.
AC/DC came from Melbourne so have a street named after them
St Paul’s cathedral (one of the few places open) with this modern but entirely relatable nativity scene
A ride in the FREE circular tram which helpfully tells you bits of information about what’s available at each stop.

We are sending Christmas Day evening with a trip to the cinema to see Wicked (part 2)…with cheap tickets for seniors like us followed by a festive egg and bacon fry up courtesy of Martin.

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