Every year, the city of Melbourne gets fully decked out for the holiday season in Christmas trees and lights everywhere. The center of the city, or the central business district (CBD) always has a Christmas light show, usually at the Town Hall, and last year, in Federation Square. This year, there’s actually a light show at the library, the Town Hall, AND at Federation Square. Along with the annual Gingerbread Village and the Myer Christmas windows (this year, themed with gum nut babies!), it makes the city so festive and fun. And every year I think, wow, this really makes the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree and the light projection show at Saks Fifth Avenue seem so boring.

This year, the actual light projection show is at the State Library of Victoria on the Swanston Street facade. The Town Hall has a fixed light projection given that there isn’t enough space along Swanston Street to safely allow big crowds to watch. The projections at the state library tell the story of “A Melbourne Night Before Christmas,” written by Melbourne Writers Festival Director Marieke Hardy and narrated by Lee Lin Chin.

It was a fun and unique rhyming story of a night before Christmas with a very Melbourne twist, mentioning local neighborhoods, buildings, and staples throughout Melbourne such as St. Kilda, the Rialto Tower, and lattes (because what would Melbourne be without its coffee culture?). Chris noted that unless you were a Melbournian, you probably wouldn’t understand most of the rhymes. Since I’ve been coming here for the last seven years, I actually understood a good number of them. It’s almost like I am a quasi-local, or at least a regular at the same time each year.

The projections are on repeat every four minutes and light up the library daily from 9pm until 10:45pm every day until Christmas Eve. It’s such a fun and happy tradition to have here each Christmas season. I always get excited to see this changing and evolving light show each year; it’s one of the biggest highlights of our visit during Christmas.