ustralian visitors come from around the country for the unusual and slightly eccentric festival of Christmas celebrations in June and July, and international travelers are increasingly factoring it into their holiday plans. Wonderland’s online facility now makes it easy to browse and book Mountains accommodation from anywhere within Australia or from overseas.
Winter Mountains visitors come here for fresh, bracing cold air and for stylish Christmas feasts with thoughtful conversations by roaring log fires. And (whenever we can arrange it) for a lovely clean carpet of white and a snowball fight on a blue sky winter morning.
Like so many eccentricities, Yulefest was born quite by accident. This quirky seasonal anomaly came into being three decades ago at Katoomba’s Mountain Heritage hotel when proprietor, Gary Crockett, was chatting with guests from Eire on a cold July day. One of them noticed the irony, for them, of winter weather in July. With snow falling outside, he asked if the hotel could perhaps arrange a few Christmas–style food and festivities that evening.
That night Mountain Heritage served turkey and traditional trimmings, Christmas crackers and mince pies by the fire, and Yulefest was born. The following year the hotel declared ‘Christmas in July’ to be a permanent Mountain Heritage event and word spread quickly. By next season, many Mountains guesthouses, B&Bs and resorts had realised the conceptual value for visitors and the regional economy, and organized similar festivities for their own guests. Within a couple of years Yulefest had become an established winter holiday escape for Blue Mountains visitors.
2010 is Yulefest’s 30th year, opening with the traditional Winter Ball staged annually at one of the Mountains’ fine resorts. In guesthouses and B&Bs across the region, Christmas fare has become the seasonal gift to winter holidaymakers with carols, fine food, fireside mulled wine and quiet reflection.
Yulefest has become an incredibly popular annual Australian holiday and the Mountains’ heritage B&Bs and guesthouses fill up quickly, so now’s the time to steal a march and get busy online with your ‘Christmas in July’ bookings. Yulefest packages are available, in fact, between June and mid-August at most hospitality locations in the upper Mountains. Whether you’re reading this in print in Australia, or overseas on our page-by-page facility at bluemountainswonderland.com.au, you’ll find a convenient one-stop-shop accommodation register for a wide range of budgets, with more accommodation at the website of Blue Mountains Lithgow & Oberon Tourism, visitbluemountains.com.au. You’ll be welcome in our Winter Wonderland!
