For almost two decades, Australian stores have hosted all-night shopping events in the lead-up to Christmas. Perhaps that’s why being in a mall at 2am feels surprisingly normal
For the first time since I was dragged to mass by my extended family as a child, I am awake at midnight on Christmas Eve. Thousands surround me at our chosen place of worship: Chadstone, Australia’s gaudy and glitzy home of luxury and high-street shopping. We’re here to experience the surreal early hours of its 34-hour trade period, in which a vast majority of the centre’s 500+ stores stay open from 8am on the 23rd until 6pm on Christmas Eve.
It’s a curiously Australian tradition. Chadstone was one of the first shopping centres in the country to offer extended Christmas trading hours, 17 years ago. Other popular centres, including Westfields in Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane now offer their own “non-stop shop” marathons too, as does the Highpoint shopping centre in Melbourne’s Maribyrnong. Each late shift features its own line-up of events and installations. This year, one such attraction went terribly wrong in Sydney’s Westfield Parramatta when a balloon drop at midnight resulted in five hospitalisations.
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