Every year, as the festive season rolls around, Myer’s decorates their windows in a beautiful display of Christmas joy. The Myer Windows are now in their 61st year and are routinely enjoyed by around 1.2 million locals and international visitors every single year – they really are a stalwart part of Australian festive cheer. If you find yourself taking a Melbourne city tour this year, be sure to stop by and admire the magical scene that plays out. The windows themselves are located on the front of Myer Melbourne in the Bourke Street Mall.
This year, the incredible Christmas windows display scenes from the children’s book “One Christmas Eve”, by Corinne Fenton and illustrator Marjorie Crosby-Fairall.
Presenting the story in a charming way, the windows tell the story of main character Bella on Christmas Eve in 1968 as she takes a trip to see her grandparents in St Kilda for a traditional Australia Christmas barbecue. Afterwards, Bella’s grandfather takes her to Luna Park, where she takes a ride on the magical carousel. As she jumps aboard her horse and lets her imagination run wild, she begins to daydream about her majestic steed taking her up, up, up into the sky and exploring Melbourne from above.
When she’s above the clouds, she bumps into Santa and his reindeers – every child’s Christmas fantasy. Once the carousel ride comes to an end, Bella is brought back down to ground and heads back to her grandparents.
On Christmas Day, Bella unwraps a rocking horse hand-carved for her by her grandfather – it almost identically resembles the majestic horse she rode on the carousel the day before.
This year’s display is just as magical as the previous years, bringing the joy of Christmas to life through another local story. Each window features 3D adaptions of some of the city’s iconic sites, including Luna Park where the book takes place, and the display as a whole boasts more than 10,000 festoon lights, 5,000 miniature figurines, and took more than 30 artists and 17,000 hours to make. You can visit the Myer Melbourne Windows every day throughout the Christmas period. They are open from 7.30am each day, with the last show taking place at 1am. The display is up until the 5thJanuary and, while there, you can do a spot of Christmas shopping in the Giftorium to continue the festive cheer.
