Merry + Bright: a very Canberra Christmas

Posted on 24 November, 2018

Our Christmas may not be white, but Canberra sure knows how to make the festive season merry and bright.

This December, the city centre will be dressed for the season, with interactive street art stretching from City to Garema Place, a Christmas Forest, decorations and lighting transforming the CBD.

Merry + Bright, the official ACT Government Christmas celebrations for the city, will celebrate a Canberra Christmas—and for 12 days right up until Christmas Eve, there’ll be a full program of events to get even the most bah humbug-inclined amongst us in the holiday spirit.

Ashleigh Gleeson of Damsel and Sprout, the team chosen to realise the government’s vision, says that they wanted to “encourage Canberrans to spend time in the city over the Christmas period” with a different spin on the usual festive activity.

“Merry and Bright is a celebration of Christmas, and how we celebrate in Canberra,” she explains. “We’re embracing summer time, and our beautiful warm weather with lots of entertainment options combined with the traditional elements of Christmas we all know and love.”

“Instead of snow and hot cocoa, we’re embracing the sun, ice blocks, family, friends and backyard cricket! We want to create opportunity for time and memories over the Christmas period.”

To do this, Merry + Bright has swapped traditional light displays for 12 days packed with entertainment (although there will be some seriously great photo opportunities too).

“City Walk will be painted with the biggest interactive floor art piece to be done in Canberra (it’s the length of City Walk!),” says Ashleigh. “A live Christmas tree forest will be built in Garema Place, there will be pancakes with Santa, a week of free outdoor Christmas movies in Glebe Park and more.”

And the best part? Everything in the Merry + Bright program is free. So, what can you look forward to?

FOR THE KIDDIES

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love brought to me…a family-friendly day of Christmas activities.

Between 10 am–4 pm on Saturday 15 December, there’ll be backyard cricket run by ACT Cricket for the sporty squirts, cookie decorating for the budding cooks, Christmas card making for the crafty kids, and a variety of free rides, music and dance sessions and roving entertainment in Glebe Park.

On Saturday 22 December, the kids will also be able to hand deliver their wish lists to the big man himself at Pancakes with Santa. The event is free and will be held in Glebe Park, but families should register to make sure they nab a spot.

FOR THE ‘GRAM

Break up the monotony of everyone else’s Instagram posts of their Christmas trees and carefully wrapped presents and snap a pic in the Urban Forest, open throughout the 12 days in Garema Place.

The first night of Christmas activities will include a DJ truck playing all your favourite holiday jams during an evening Christmas party in Garema Place on Friday 14 December, and the iconic Petrie Plaza Merry Go Round will be open, there’ll also be roving entertainment to make your ‘gram stories stand out from the crowd.

FOR THE MOVIE BUFFS

Enjoy a romcom, family caper or classic Christmas romp in Glebe Park’s outdoor cinema.  

Between Monday 17–Friday 21 December you can catch festive flicks at the nighttime outdoor cinema that’ll be hosted from 8 pm each night.

For the kids, there’ll be Muppets Christmas Carol and Arthur Christmas, The Holiday for the hopeless romantics, and for those who like a dash of nostalgia with their movies, The Santa Claus and Home Alone 2.

the essentials

What: Merry + Bright
When: Friday 14 December–Monday 24 December
Where: Various locations around Glebe Park, Garema Place, Petrie Plaza and City Walk
Website: merryandbrightcbr.com.au

HerCanberra is a proud media partner of Merry + Bright.