Merry Christmas, everyone.
For the first time since 2017, Christmas Day falls on a Monday and its perfect timing for our Christmas Snapshot, focusing on how Sydneysiders marked Christmas 25 years ago.
The year of focus is 1998.
Christmas Services
The Daily Telegraph provided its readers with an overview of what would open and what would be closed on Christmas Day, and generally, there has been little change over the past 25 years.
On December 26, The Daily Telegraph provided a summary of how the city marked Christmas Day. Ashfield Uniting Church hosted 2500 people for Christmas Lunch, led by Rev. Bill Crews. Sydney Lord Mayor Frank Sartor acted as Santa while former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and wife Blanche d'Alpuget waited on attendees
Their work has expanded over the years. Apart from Christmas Lunch at Ashfield, the Bill Crews Foundation will have delivered hampers to thousands of homes in the lead-up to today.
10,000 people, mainly backpackers, converged on Bondi Beach for their traditional Christmas Day gathering. The weather played its part, providing attendees with perfect skies.
Carols in the Domain was on 19 December 1998 and was compered by Hugh Jackman.
Boxing Day Sales on Boxing Day
Source: Ryan, R. 1998. "City stores don Boxing Day gloves". The Daily Telegraph, December 26: 7.
In 1998, Sydney CBD retailers traded on Boxing Day for the first time, which gave Sydneysiders an opportunity to obtain bargains on Boxing Day without having to leave the Sydney Metropolitan area. However, suburban retailers were still prohibited from trading. Under the legislation, the Sydney CBD was deemed to be a tourist area, alongside centres in NSW that were also designated as tourist centres for the purposes of retail trading on Boxing Day. This had been allowed for years, but retailers refused on their own accord to do so.
One retailer that did not participate in Boxing Day trading in central Sydney was David Jones.
This arrangement continued until 2003. In 2004, Sydney CBD retailers were not permitted to trade on Boxing Day as it fell on a Sunday, and a public holiday in lieu was given (27 December 2004).
Sydneysiders voted with their feet, with 100,000 shoppers travelling into the city to take advantage of the bargains on offer, led by department stores Grace Bros and David Jones.
Source: McCabe, K. "Shoppers create a retail heaven". The Sunday Telegraph, December 27: 7.
No comments:
Post a Comment