No need to book a flight for a white Christmas. This unique three day Christmas Village exudes all the traditional holiday cheer you'll need.
Carolers, hot chocolate, roasted chestnuts, holiday decorations, dustings of snow and twinkling lights… celebrating Christmas is an art form, and across the world small towns have perfected it, turning storybook Christmases straight out of a Dickens novel into reality.
Channelling these European Christmas villages with old-fashioned charm, Geelong’s forthcoming Christmas Village is guaranteed to make you feel like you’re stepping inside your favourite holiday flick, or more specifically, a literal Hallmark movie.
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around the region here.
Taking over the Mittagong Girl Guides Campsite in Lara from Friday, December 2 to Sunday, December 4, the three-day Christmas experience is a carefully curated miniature village, designed, built and decorated in the elaborate style of an old European town at Christmas – doing so through the use of preloved products, with the family renovating and creating and spending nearly every waking hour on creating The Christmas Village.
Reflecting that of the pages of a children’s storybook, here guests will be able to explore the Elf town, sit in a traditional hand-built sleigh, see the reindeer stables, have a delicious hot chocolate in Mrs Claus’ kitchen, check out the workshop, marvel at a snow show and so much more.
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Inspired by a long love of Christmas, the glitter, the sparkle, tinsel shining in the sun, the joy on kids’ faces and the time spent with loved ones, the Christmas Village journey has been a long time coming for the creators, beginning back in 2012 after spending Christmas in New York and being in awe of how well they do Christmas in America.
“Their Christmas markets were all coordinated with matching red and white gazebos or little glass huts for vendors, with the whole space the market occupied decked out in lights and garlands. They were so different to any Christmas markets we had seen here at home in Australia, we were completely inspired and wished we didn’t have to travel quite so far to see more of that kind of festive event,” the organisers reveal.
In the years that followed, the local family hosted a Christmas market and open air cinema night as a fundraiser for the local soccer club and then went on to visit Manchester Christmas markets, Christmas market in Bruges, a little village called Grindelwald in Tasmania, and in 2019, just before the world was hit with Covid, they went to Iceland and visited a little Christmas Village just outside the town of Akureyi.
“It was the cutest little village, literally consisting of a few buildings and a Christmas decoration shop. There was not an awful lot to see but there were little ‘elf homes’ and Santa’s house, and a hot chocolate stall and once again, all super cute and very inspiring to us, given we had now been thinking about doing something along the same lines for six or seven years.”
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And so that’s exactly what they’ve done – they’ve created a miniature Christmas village, providing a walk-through experience with lots of brightly coloured little houses, Christmas trees and lots of Christmas things to see. With hopes the Christmas Village will one day be a permanent destination, the organisers are spreading the Christmas cheer to Geelong and surrounds with their inaugural Christmas village event.
Oh and the best part? Children under four are free.
This is what Christmas magic looks like. You can purchase tickets to The Christmas Village here.
Follow the creative journey to the Village here.
