December is here and the weather is slowly warming up!
For this blog post, we are celebrating the beginning of the holiday season with some of our favourite books. Not only do we have some books about the history of Christmas, but also we have a few books about the tradition of summer holidaying too. If you have a spare moment we encourage you to stop by the library and borrow some of these recommended books. They are perfect to bring with you on a holiday!
Hamlyn’s holiday atlas of Australia: a glove-box road atlas and holiday planner by Hamlyn Guides
If you are wondering about the holiday hotspots of the 1970s, this book is an interesting look into the recommended places to go on holiday during that time. It also has a collection of maps from these years, as well as a few old advertisements! This book was intended to be everything one needed to plan a holiday anywhere in Australia. This included things that you needed to know when visiting another state. For example, in the Victoria section, it has a few tips about the driving laws within Victoria. This includes how to drive alongside trams, how to do right hand turns and when to do a U-Turn. This book is a special piece of history that gives an idea of what holidaying in Australia was like in the 70s. While the places might look different, it is still good to know that all the go-to holiday spots were just as popular fifty years ago!
A Bush Christmas by Roger Bush (illustrated by Mary Stegelman)
Roger Bush was a well-known minister and radio personality. He was known for being a talkback radio minister on a program called Connections. He also wrote a column for the Sydney Sun newspaper for 12 years. In this book, he has compiled various Christmas stories that have been requested by listeners to his radio program. Most of the poems and stories within this book are based in Australia that have a nostalgic air.
Christmas in the colonies by Maisy Stapleton and Patricia McDonald
The authors, Maisy Stapleton and Patricia McDonald searched through old journals, newspapers, pictures and manuscripts to compile this history of Christmas in the Australian colonies. As it becomes clear during the course of this book, this was an interesting time to celebrate Christmas in Australia. Many people wanted to hold onto the English Christmas traditions, but the combination of a different climate and the economic struggles of the colonies, these traditions were forced to change. This book includes illustrations, advertisements and even recipes from past Christmases since colonisation. If you are interested in learning about the origins of the iconic Australian outback Christmas, this book is perfect.
The 2025 Christmas book display at the PMI Victorian History Library
Making magic: forty years of fun: the Myer Christmas windows by Pat Lawson-Black
In 1939, a man called Fred Asmussen was put in charge of dressing the windows of the Myer Emporium on Bourke Street in Melbourne. He had new and exciting ideas for these displays with the intention of lifting the spirts of city shoppers. Eventually, he had an idea to begin special Christmas themed displays with limited merchandise on show. This was a bold idea at the time and a first for Australia. However, they were a great success, and the Myer Christmas windows are now a beloved tradition on Bourke Street. Pat Lawson-Black’s book goes through the history of the Myer windows until 1996. This includes photographs of the window and a summary of how they were created and the inspiration behind them. The photographs of the windows in this book are taken by Lloyd Hull, who has captured all the windows from the 1950s until he passed in 1996. This book is not only a tribute to the Myer windows, but also to him. He has helped keep the history of these windows alive.
The coast of western Victoria is often a popular holiday destination for the summer months. This book is not only a guide of the area, but it also goes through much of the history of the many towns and cities that make up western Victoria. People from all over the world have been visiting this area for a long time and often contributed to these interesting histories. Graham Patterson, does not just stop at the history of the area since European invasion. He also includes the Aboriginal history of western Victoria and even the geology of the region. This book is the third book in a series of guides about Victoria’s coastal regions. Graham Patterson is the author of this book. While he grew up far away from the ocean, years of holiday memories have kindled a love for Victoria’s coastal regions.
Has one of these titles sparked your interest? All of these books are available to borrow from the PMI Victorian History Library today.