We had a wonderful time in Sydney enjoying the Emerald city. As we walked around the city, it was refreshing not to see all the commercialization of Christmas.
Sydney is a very walkable city with multiple parks and families out enjoying the Christmas festivities. There are several displays throughout the city.
There were special event areas that were decorated with lights and music in the evenings. The Pitt Street Mall area looked magical with its decorated trees and lights. One of the city’s most popular Christmas attractions was a beautiful Christmas tree in Martin Place. We learned that this tree has is decorated with more than 110,000 LED lights, dressed in 15,000 buds representing nine different kinds of native Australian flowers, 330 glossy baubles, and topped with a 3.4-metre color-changing star. Surrounding the tree, 4,104 warm white icicle fairy lights span across Martin Place.
Each night this colossal Christmas decoration will light up with a kaleidoscope of multi-colored lights, spreading Christmas cheer and shining festive colors out onto Darling Harbour.
St Mary’s Cathedral sounds like another must-see, with its glowing projections and digital animations. It’s amazing to think that it’s the first Catholic chapel in Australia and dates back to 1838. We sat in the park across from the church and listened to Christmas music until dusk when the light show began of 12 nights of Christmas. This is a laser visual display with music. The visual display runs Dec 15-25th.
Sunday afternoon (Dec 16th) we went to the Sydney Opera House for a performance by the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir of Christmas carols and readings. The Concert Hall with the sound of a 600-strong choir and full symphony orchestra was amazing to hear then with no amplifiers. The performance was excellent, and we enjoyed our time during the two Acts over three-hour period. The one performance of “Amazing Grace” sang Acapella by 20 members of the choir was one of the key highlights. The Opera house has fantastic acoustics throughout the concert hall.
