(openPR) - For Immediate Release
Daniel Phillips
SydneyGhostTour.Com
Phone: 02 8197 0363
Fax: 02 9955 3596
Email: d.c.phillips@optusnet.com.au
Web site: www.sydneyghosttour.com

Ghosts of Christmas Past

North Sydney, New South Wales - 06/12/2010

Who would have thought a Ghost tour would be telling you about the history, traditions and quirky things about Christmas? Daniel Phillips, founder of SydneyGhostTour.Com, Sydney, Australia Local historian and tour guide acts as "The Ghost of Christmas Past"

Santa Claus? Reindeer? Six White boomers? Where did all of this stuff come from anyway? While the religious aspects of the Christmas have remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years, many of the things we take for granted about Christmas today, such as:

• Christmas holidays,
• Christmas carols
• Santa,
• the Reindeer,
• giving Christmas presents,
• Christmas Turkey,
• Christmas trees and Fairy lights,
• and even today’s Christmas Carols, Cards and Crackers,

Are all recent phenomena by comparison.

Daniel Phillips explains " One of the things that really stands out when you read the letters and diaries of Sydney's pioneers is how important celebrations like Christmas were - and the "fun" they had trying to keep essentially European traditions in a place where even the seasons appeared to be "upside down", as Christmas in Australia happens in the middle of Summer.

"Many of the things we take for granted today, like Christmas trees, and the giving of Christmas gifts, and even "Boxing Day", were all first being established around the same time the Colony of Sydney was really just hitting it's stride. Up until that time, Christmas was just another religious date, like Palm Sunday, or Pentecost where people went to church, remembered the date, and then went back to work, with little fuss before or after. No holiday, no presents, no decorations – nothing!”

“ Ironically, only a hundred years or so earlier than that, singing Christmas carols could get you put in jail in England – it was considered a frivolous and possibly Catholic tradition by the Puritans who gave Charles 1st ‘the chop!’ ” Daniel states. “Surprisingly enough the first really serious appearances of Christmas traditions we would recognise now, start happening in Australia just before the first gold rushes. With the wealth that was generated by this, and the waves of further immigration particularly from Europe, they really took off. Traditions like the German Christmas tree, introduced to the English royal family by Queen Alexandra, Queen Victoria's mother, and embraced by her and Prince Albert, spread throughout the English speaking world, soon became fixtures in Australian homes".

Daniel goes on to explain the history of Santa Claus, Reindeer, Christmas trees, Fairy lights, Mistletoe, Holly, Garlands, Christmas Cards and Crackers, Boxing Day - and a whole lot more. Yet what makes it even more fascinating is that he explains this in the context of how the North shore of Sydney, with all of the names of the suburbs and streets came about, and how our pioneers adapted European winter time traditions to Australian Summertime living.

For the next few weeks, SydneyGhostTour.Com will be running the "Ghosts of Christmas Past" tour starting at the family friendly time of 7.15pm, at the entrance of Stocklands Mall Cammeray Square, on the corner of Miller Street and Amherst Streets in Cammeray. Numbers are limited, bookings are essential and can be made on 8197 0363, or by visiting www.sydneyghosttour.com

Daniel Phillips is available for expert interview on 02 8197 0363, or alternatively on 0413 390 637, with high resolution JPEG pictures of night time ghost tours available on request.

SydneyGhostTour.Com is the brainchild of Daniel Phillips. This is Sydney Australia’s Leading Ghost Tour company & Beyondthegrave.net.au, is a companion day time history tour and seminar company. For more details about us, visit www.sydneyghosttour.com/about-us.html

SydneyGhostTour.Com
3/248 Miller Street
North Sydney
New South Wales 2060
Australia
Phone: +61 2 8197 0363
Fax: +61 2 9955 3596
Email: d.c.phillips@optusnet.com.au
Web site: www.sydneyghosttour.com