The light displays are bigger, the presents are more expensive and the exodus to the coast has increased but Christmas in Canberra hasn't changed that much over the years.
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It is still a special time when families come together, large amounts of food are consumed and more than two millennia of tradition is celebrated with the birth of Jesus Christ.
Go through the photographic archives showcasing Christmas in Canberra and you won't find snow laden streets, people ice-skating outdoors or families huddled together around a giant turkey.
What you will see are people in T
This time of year produces powerfully contrasting images.
The joy of a child at receiving a puppy compared with a rejected puppy in a cage at the pound. An extravagant feast at the Hyatt Hotel can be juxtaposed with an elderly man alone modestly receiving a free Christmas lunch at Ainslie Village.
They are images that capture the history of Canberra at a particular time and place.
Canberra Museum and Gallery collections manager Jennifer Elton has reached back into the Canberra Christmas timeline to reproduce the festive spirit of another era.
There are no photos but there are full-scale reproductions of how colonial Australia celebrated this time of year in the region.
Three old properties have been decked out with historic representations of Christmas in the early to mid-1900s.
Lanyon Homestead, Calthorpes' House and Mugga-Mugga have been given festive makeovers in an attempt to showcase their celebrations.
Two recent reports by ACT Historic Places detail what life was probably like at Christmas on these properties.
Ms Elton said the report on Lanyon Homestead, the opulent estate of the three, showed it was a Victorian-style Christmas.
"With Calthorpes' we are really lucky because we know for sure," she said.
"With Mugga we have kind of surmised how the families might have celebrated there.
"Theirs was more simple. the Mugga property is quite a contrast to Calthorpes' House.
"The Calthorpe family says they were just an ordinary family but they had a maid and they were a bit more middle class."
Lanyon Homestead was a step up again.
Crepe paper decorations at Mugga-Mugga contrast with elaborate flower displays and silverware at Lanyon.
But the important Christmas themes celebrated at that time reflect what remains important to us today.
"It was very much about the family unit and tradition," Ms Elton said.
