At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year.
Thomas  Tusser

Sorry to burst your bubble there Tommy but you have obviously never been to Sydney! Here we also celebrate Christmas in July.

Every year in the month named after Julius Caesar, Sydney’s ex-pat community load up their wagons and head up into the Blue Mountains, where in near sub-zero conditions (15 degrees celsius 🙂 )they partake in a festive dinner. Katoomba even has it’s own Yulefest.

We were to be very fortunate in that our circle of friends are part of this great migration so we had an invite to partake in the yuletide celebrations – all we needed was to bring some booze and go and get a Secret Santa present. During the week leading up to our trip we started to notice how big a thing Christmas in July was – with Christmas Trees and decorations in the CBD and even ice skating in Bondi Beach!

After work on the Friday we met up with Liam and Emily and drove up to the house we would be staying in just outside Wentworth. Liam and Emily had heavily invested in the Xmas theme and their car’s interior had tinsel and bobbles galore along the dashboard – that was until the first hard turn and they all ended up in the driver’s lap.

When we arrived the party atmosphere was in full swing. Rowan (Papa Smurf) had done all the shopping and had arrived hours earlier to put up the Christmas Tree and decorations and by the time we had our coats off two glasses of mulled wine had been thrust into our hands! We had to make a quick costume change as inspired by Laura Hamilton – we had decided to try and make our own Christmas Jumpers using what can only be described as the Odds and Ends drawer from Blue Peter!

Due to the luck of the draw Karen and I managed to get a private room. We were very lucky as there was 22 people in a house that sleeps 12. Good thing we are all friends.

Months ago at the Basin there was a famous Volleyball match – to the victors was the reward of not having to make the Christmas Dinner that year. Suffice to say the Girls lost and so would be on dinner duties that evening. But the guys are not completely helpless and so as well as making breakfast that morning we chopped and peeled all the vegetables.

After breakfast and inspired by the musical Grease – we divided by gender and went our separate ways for the day. The boys headed into Katoomba for Pizzas,Pints and sledging whilst the girls went for a picnic and a hike around Wentworth Falls.

That evening the group combined again for a huge Christmas Feast complete with party games, jumpers, food, a music quiz, and a ‘interesting’ present distribution by not 1 but 2 Santas!!!

Group Shot

We had a great time but  we were not looking forward to the clean up the next morning.

However it was like a military operation with Pam and Rowan shouting orders and before you could taste the BBQ sausages for breakfast the house was clean! Really it felt like one of those 1980s fixing up montages.

All that was left was a hot chocolate from the Chocolate Factory in Katoomba – the same one we took shelter from the elements in back in April!