We'll be arriving in Sydney late afternoon on Dec. 24. Would like to book something for Christmas Eve dinner. Are hotels the only place to eat on that day? What about Christmas day? Are we going to have lunch and dinner only in hotels?

Christmas Eve plenty should be open.

Christmas Day maybe a Chritsmas lunch or dinner cruise? or this site lists many restauarants that are open.

http://www.bestrestaurants.com.au/sp...asp?eventID=69

Sails on Lavender Bay listed on that site looks tempting for Christmas Eve.

Never heard of it but Lavender Bay is really pretty spot just on the north side of the Harbour Bridge. Maybe have a an hour at Luna Park afterwards.

Correction, not at Lavendar Bay but at McMahons Point on Lavender Bay. About 5 minutes by ferry across the harbour from the city. Great views with a window seat.

It's the height of summer, of course, and while some people eat the traditional heavy British Xmas food (and live to regret it), others make do with the more appropriate light fare that is so great in Sydney. So don't expect a northern-hemisphere type of Xmas scenario. (But you will hear tunes like "White Xmas" and "whatever-his-name the frosty snowman" and such while it's 100 degrees F / 37.7 C in the shade...).

When in doubt, head for the beach areas like Bondi and Manly, there's always something open.

WK

Excuse me for intruding but this thread makes me smile. By dear father was raised in Australia as I have mentioned before. His mother, born and raised in London always had beef (primerib I assume), yorkshire pudding, plum pudding with white sauce served for Christmas dinner. My dear father always said it almost made him ill as such heavy food didn't go with the weather in Sydney. He and his buddies would escape their homes just as soon as possible after their heavy dinners and spend the rest of the day on Bondi Beach. And that was decades ago. So perhaps things haven't changed much?

Another option is Chinatown - where there is bound to be something open.

Most of the big hotels, and some of the big restaurants open on Christmas Day, for lunch, at least, but the meal will be expensive - and perhaps not very good?! Christmas Eve is not a big thing here - but you may need to make a reservation somewhere.

Definitely make sure you have reservations for your meals. We arrived on Christmas Eve without reservations thinking we could eat at our hotel but the restaurant was booked and there was no room service. I would suggest reservations for Christmas Eve, Day and Boxing Day.

Thanks for your responses.

Apparently, I have to book for Dec. 24 and 25. I think we will end up with a dinner in the hotel on Dec. 24. I am at the moment trying to find a restaurant for Dec. 25, preferrably not in the hotel.

If you have any other specific suggestions, please let me know. Thanks again.

LoveItaly, your father wasn't too far off the mark, but in our case it was usually roast chicken - chicken not being the cheap, mass-produced, tasteless substance it is today. In fact there was a time when it actually tasted somewhat meatlike, especially the sacrificial roosters cornered in the backyard, decapitated and hung upside-down from the clothes line to bleed, prior to being gutted and plucked by yours truly.

No offence to your dad (mine was a Pom too), but roast beef and Yorkshire pud on Christmas Day sounds like one of those English perversions that Australian children (except those who went to expensive boarding schools, and paid the price) used to be warned about. I suspect though that it was probably plain old topside. My working-class family didn't know that such a thing as prime rib existed.

The rest of your story - the Christmas pud with white sauce (in our case filled with threepenny bits, a sometimes fatal practice) is 100% accurate. To this day I can't stomach that stuff.