Monday 9 December 2013

Christmas in the City


We braved the big city on the weekend and took the kids into town to check out all the Christmas festivities that are currently taking place.

When you are a suburban mum of school age kids, it's one of those pilgrimages that you kind of have to do because all the kid's friends are talking about how cool it is right now in the city and your own children are threatening to chew your ears off until you take them to see it all for themselves.

And then there is the fact that this particular mum wrote 'A Day in The City' as one of the activities in the advent calendar - and I am totally blaming the late night brain fart for that idea.

But we did it and if I am honest, I think we may have enjoyed it just as much as the kids.

I still get a bit of a buzz when I head into the city, maybe it's because I don't go there so much any more, it could just be that the whole vibe of the city at this time of the year is totally infectious, or maybe it's just that the silly season has gone to my head and I have completely lost my mind.

Whatever the explanation - we were up at crackers so that we could make our way into town before the weekend rush and the kids had no idea where we were going or what we were going to do.

We had an agenda for our visit (of course we did cause I am a control freak) and the day began with a ride up the elevator to Santa's Grotto at Sydney Tower Eye to meet Santa and do some Christmas Crafting.

If you head up the Tower between now and Christmas Eve, your kids can meet Santa and get a free gift AND you get a free photo of them with Santa.

With our Christmas photo done and dusted, it was back down again to do a bit of window shopping.

Of course you cannot go to the city at Christmas without checking out the David Jones window displays. That's the one part of the day that's more for me than the kids, although they do love it too which is a very convenient bonus. I've mastered the old subtle elbow technique to ensure that the kids and I can get a position right in front of the window and have a really good gooz.

What???

It's taken me years to perfect the elbow push!


We spent a bit of time wandering around the streets and eating hideous American lollies that I was conned into buying before heading back towards home. After picking up a couple of the boy's friends, we packed ourselves a picnic and joined hundreds of others at our local carols by candlelight.

Sadly I don't have a single photo to share with you because honestly I was too busy trying to keep track of our motley crew in the crowd and lining up for the toilets to even think about pulling my camera out. but I can tell you that by the end of the day - the kids were plum tuckered and begging for their beds, which may or may not have been our master plan.

What did you get up to on the weekend? 
Are you in full festive mode now?

We were guests of Sydney Eye Tower but we were responsible for all other shenanigans.