We have just been out for dinner in Wollongong and tonight there is a ‘Santafest’. All the young people are dressed up as Santas, or elves, or angels; and there are a lot of reindeer antler headresses. As we walked home through the city centre, every way we looked, we saw a group of young people dressed up. And because it is warm, they are all wearing shorts, or short dresses. Where we have Christmas jumpers, they have Christmas short-sleeved shirts!
All this jollity is to raise money for charity. There is a free ‘Santafest’ shuttlebus driving round the city, and people go from place to place around the city, and everywhere they stop contributes something to the charity. (For adult readers: this is an ambulant peregrination of local hostelries!) They are all having great fun, and for a good cause! One group even stopped to pose for a photo (see below).
Tomorrow night is carol singing by the beach, with a lightshow (not fireworks because of the bushfires). The Salvation Army will be playing, and Grandad and I are going to go and join in – although ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ and ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ will feel rather odd amongst cabbage palms, gum trees and sunshine!
Nana Down Under 