Merry Christmas Melbourne

Christmas in Melbourne, and of course we have had the full four seasons in the build up - sweltering heat, rain and storm clouds. The usual!

Here are some of the festive sights that have caught my eye around town this month:

Federation Square has been covered in plastic trees for the month - an installation called In The Pines, it contains 250 recycled plastic Xmas trees. Walking in among them is really something else - a little forest in the Square!

Flinders Street Station has been the boldest, with it's message. This lettering features a lit

City Square has had a little Christmas Village, with Santa and toy soldiers all around - and this massive Xmas tree.

The Town Hall has been the canvas to a spectacular light show, which I have only seen photos from other people, but it looked pretty impressive.

Bourke Street has taken on a Jingle Bells theme, which for much of the month simply meant the banners calling it that. But finally the canopy of bells was completed along the full length of the Mall.

However in my lengthy daily commute during the month, I have seen some pretty horrendous Xmas decorations.  The tree in QV with it's construction zone-type flags wound around it as it's only decoration. Yuck!

The tacky red Xmas tree in the middle of Whitehorse Road in Box Hill is pretty ugly, and surely seen many years by the look of it. The mammoth tree above Santa at Doncaster Shoppingtown, with it's out of proportion lights and trail of reindeer floating around it was also a strangely disturbing sight.

But that's Christmas, isn't it!? Some lovely bits, some tacky, over-the-top bits. The good bits, and the stress and excess...

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it today. I hope it has the  right amount of good bits for you!