Christmas Day 2009 was an overcast, windy day and much cooler than expected. There were few people on the beach, but many groups gathered in the park and had picnics to celebrate Christmas. It sure looked like it would rain at any moment, but it held off until about 5 o'clock. There was a huge music event inside the Bondi Pavilion and hundreds were queued up for the full ritual of metal detectors, photo-IDs and wrist-tags for everybody, all in the name of having a good but safe time.
