Broadbeach Mall, 450 metres from Marriner’s Fern Street door, spends every December as a gingerbread village. Free festive workshops run each afternoon (bookings required), Santa selfies run each evening (no booking needed), and a run of gingerbread cookie decorating, Christmas craft, storytime theatre and a Santa’s post office for the kids to drop off a letter fills the mall next to the Oasis Shopping Centre across more than a week each December. Its companion event sets up a short walk away at Kurrawa Park on Old Burleigh Road, by the same stretch of sand as Kurrawa Beach: kids’ activities from mid-afternoon building into a free evening of carols under the stars, no tickets required, on one night rather than a whole run of them. Oasis Shopping Centre next door covers the last-minute wrapping paper or forgotten side dish in the lead-up.
The bigger stage, one tram ride north
HOTA, Home of the Arts on Bundall Road, hosts the bigger of the coast’s two carols nights: the City of Gold Coast’s own Mayor’s Christmas Carols, free and open to anyone who turns up, now run there after outgrowing Broadwater Parklands. Where Broadbeach’s carols are a local pause on one evening, this one draws a crowd from right along the coast for a full outdoor stage and a changing line-up of Australian acts each December. Florida Gardens G:link station, 750 metres from Marriner’s door, is the quickest way there: a stop or two north to Surfers Paradise, then the walk HOTA sends every visitor on, over Chevron Island and the Green Bridge to the Bundall Road side of the river. Cavill Avenue, 1.5 km on foot, is the longer way round, for anyone who wants a look at Surfers Paradise’s own strip along the way.
Room enough for the whole family’s Christmas lunch
Two apartments a floor and 180 square metres each means Christmas lunch doesn’t have to happen in a hotel room split two ways. A full kitchen and a dining table built for a crowd handle the meal itself, and the covered BBQ area downstairs is there for whoever would rather cook outside. The heated saltwater pool, 26°C, and Northcliffe Beach, fifty metres from the building, both give the kids somewhere to burn off the excitement before anyone sits down to eat, and the sauna and steam room are there for whoever needs to slow back down afterwards. The full-sized tennis court gets a run over the quieter days either side of the big one, and secure basement parking, one space per apartment, means a full boot of presents, plus whatever’s picked up at the gingerbread village, doesn’t need carrying far. Children are welcome at any age under Marriner’s own policy, and the apartments run on fans and cross-breeze rather than air-conditioning, worth knowing for a warm Gold Coast Christmas Day.
Book the week around it
A few days either side of the 25th gives room for the gingerbread village’s full run, the one-off carols evening and a slower Christmas morning, without cramming the whole festive season into a single night out. Check-in runs 2 to 5 pm.
Find your dates and book direct, or read more about the Superior Two-Bedroom and the Three-Bedroom Ocean View. Broadbeach’s festive program is confirmed each year on Experience Gold Coast.
