Who doesn’t love Christmas and this year, the City of Melbourne did not disappoint. It had events and activities for young and old and ensured that the Christmas spirit was alive and well through out the city.

In 2013, the city kept up it’s tradition with the Santa’s Kingdom being the focal attraction of this year’s festivities. You entered it into a magical place where you could post a letter to Santa or get a photo with him. And in here, is where you could see the tall Christmas tree that gets lit up every year!

As you progress down into the city, even the town hall was wrapped up and it’s front gardens changed to be more festive.

There was a local ginger bread village and one I would recommend. But unfortunately no photos could grace the wonders within. (Wait.. did that just rhyme?)

The other part I loved, if you go past Flinders Street station and go over the bridge to cross the Yarra river, that footbridge was converted into a giant Christmas bow and had a mistle toe hanging under it. Many people stopped to kiss underneath. And others just enjoyed it’s festiveness. I would highly recommend coming back to this place at night and as you can see from the photo, you won’t be disappointed.

If you’re willing to wander and wait, I’d highly recommend going down to Southbank and near Crown Casino. Here, the gas lights are always a fun entertainment and watching people’s reactions who have never seen it before when it goes off, is priceless in itself. If anything I would highly recommend staying for some of the bigger shows which happen on the hour. I believe, during Christmas, they had smaller ones every half an hour. And if you think you were hot before you came near one of those things, well then… prepare yourself to be roasted. Plus I would highly recommend you moved away from it rather than being closer because it’s easier to get a complete perspective from the other side of the river (near the aquarium is best) than it is to do it from along the Crown board walk. And then from here, when you cross the bridge, you can see the mistle toe in all in it’s light up glory.

I decided to head back into the city to see the fabled light show on the Town Hall and along the way, I got to see Flinders Street lit up. Definitely something to stop and see.

But at the end, the town hall was in itself completely worth it. Whilst the photos gives you some glimpse into it, I would highly recommend you going to see it.

I didn’t get a chance to see the Myer windows this year. But that’s another of the top city attractions I would highly recommend!