Perth, it could be worse: Christmas Pageant; locks alight

The countdown to Christmas is well under way. The chocolate advent calenders are working well as bribery, just visible to the children on the top of the bridge. We have put up two Christmas trees and there is a third the size of our apartment block that stares at us from outside our window. All in all, it is pretty hard to escape the festive season, not that we would want to, but in all honesty, it all started 1st of November, one day after Halloween paraphernalia left the shops and was replaced with candy canes.

With 21 days until Christmas, we boarded the ferry to Langley Park for the annual RAC Channel 7 Christmas Pageant. I did not really know what to expect. To be honest when I think of a pageant, I imagine teenage girls dressed in taffeta dresses, yodelling or playing the wine glasses in a talent competition. (Not quite sure why this is what I imagine, memory of some random 80's movie?) Anyhow, apparently this has nothing to do with this particular pageant. A Christmas pageant is actually filled with colourful floats, dancers, music, and lots of jolly people. Very similar to the Mardi Gra only it was G rated not MA.

Children enjoyed waving to all the participants

There were 26 floats, including a cast of 2040 participants, 8 bands and 19 dancing groups. My particular 3 favourite personality spotting's included Fat Cat in the Beach Buggy, Santa in his sleigh, and Jonny Rosso singer from X-Factor. (Of course the children were very excited by Santa, and the 50 year old ladies in front of me were equally excited displaying undie wetting squeals when Jonny Rosso came past.)

Santa broke his microphone and bell as he drove past us, silence needed to be filled with a "Ho Ho"

I think Jonny Rosso was fearful of the menopausal squeals

It sounds a bit sadistic, but the highlight of the pageant for me was when a fire blower set his friends locks alight. He didn't even know until someone in the crowd ran towards him, hilarious, can't pay for entertainment like that.

Perth does host a good community event. There were plenty of rides all at a cheap cost. Which we are thankful for considering we bought them bull rides, which they both reneged on, then tickets for the jumping castle, but it was 35 degrees out and the plastic burnt their feet. Not really money well spent, but I think the money went to charity?
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Couldn't let the tickets go to waste could I?

The children went fishing with magnets, did physical play, made stick men, magnets, magic wands and explored the animal kingdom. Needless to say, it was a busy day, and spotting dolphins in the Swan River on the way home was the icing on the cake. Or shall I say marsipan on the fruit cake, I need to start thinking with Christmas cheer.