It's beginning to sort of resemble Christmas

Originals here and here

They had a snowstorm in Helsinki. In Prague, the Christmas markets are beginning to show their beautiful selves. It's 18 degrees C in Hobart. Now, I hate to complain, but it seems like the whole world -- maybe less Argentina -- is in the grips of a winter wonderland.

I do love Australia, and I adore Melbourne. Autumn is a sensation and I only get a little hayfever-y in spring. But December is the month when my mind turns to knitted sweaters and slipping over on black ice. I know snow stops being charming by about day three, but my romantic vision of that Vinter Vonderland persists. I blame Hollywood and Ben Affleck.

But that's not the point of this blog! It's meant to be charming and pretty. Blogs are pretty and charming. That's the way it's meant to be. So I hoofed it into the city to snap some of my favourite Christmassy places. It's not all nauseating postcards of Surfin' Santa and crummy season-appropriate rewrites of carols. No, we can copy the Northern Hemisphere every bit as well as Argentina.

So let's see what we see.

ASW Top Tourism Tip: Melbourne's arcades are sensational places. Melburnians always seem to vouch for the alleyways; and they're fascinating and pokey and everything they ought to be. But the arcades are reliable in the way arcades are. You know one store only sells Russian matryoshka dolls? They're all carved by tooth in Smolensk or something. It's pretty great.

They have a forest down at Fed Square, too. I mean, it was hardly Nova Scotia -- the trees were fake! -- but we do love ourselves a traditional Christmas here. I can't wait for baking ovens on baking days, gluhwein, ecologically unsound conifers and goddamn velvet.

Oh, and one particular film.