Max Christmas memorial: Remembering Gold Coast real estate icon at Surfers Paradise Surf Lifesaving Club
A busy Surfers Paradise street was shut down as iconic Gold Coaster Max Christmas was farewelled with the fanfare he would have loved at a ceremony on his beloved Surfers Paradise beach.
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For the man known as ‘Mr Gold Coast’ - described as ‘the greatest real estate agent in Australia, and quite possibly the greatest showman’ - it was a truly fitting farewell.
Glitter Strip icon Noel ‘Max’ Christmas, who died of a heart attack a week before Christmas aged 81, was given a send-off with all the fanfare and razzamataz that the larger-than-life legend would have loved.
The stage at his beloved Surfers Paradise Surf Club, where his memorial service was held yesterday, was framed by luxurious red curtains like an old-style music hall, with photos of Mr Christmas done up in a top hat and tails and wielding a cane beamed around the room.
A who’s who of business, political and sporting heavyweights, from billionaire Bob Ell to champion ironman Trevor Hendy, turned out in their hundreds to pay tribute to the man who played a pivotal role in putting the Gold Coast on the international tourism and investment map.
Brisbane-born Mr Christmas left school at 14 and moved to the Coast to become a carpenter, but was working on a roof in Surfers Paradise one day when he spotted dashing local real estate doyen Doug Bryant in a flash car and fancy clothes.
“Max called out ‘how do I get a car like you and dress like you’,” close friend and former colleague Duncan McInnes said.
“Doug’s classic line was ‘well mate, you’ve got to get down off that roof first.”
Mr Christmas did come down off the roof and went to work in real estate, building his eponymous agency into one of the biggest in Australia with $1 billion in annual sales at its peak.
He negotiated some of Australia’s biggest property deals - with clients including Alan Bond, Christopher Skase and Keith Williams - and blazed a trail for real estate investment from Asia.
“Max was a very tenacious man; he was not receptive to the word ‘no’,” Mr McInnes said.
“He was without a doubt the greatest real estate agent in Australia and quite possibly the greatest showman.”
One of Mr Christmas’s five daughters, Nikki, told the service that her father was ‘a glass half-full kind of guy’ who was ‘Gold Coast to his bootstraps and thought its potential was limitless’.
“We’re so lucky to have had front-row seats our whole lives watching our Mr Gold Coast strut his stuff,” she said.
Hendy said he was a nipper when he first met Mr Christmas - a himself a champion lifesaver who became president and patron of the Surfers Paradise Surf Club - and thought he was ‘the original Father Christmas’.
“He provided a lot of gifts for a lot of people,” he said.
Another close friend and former colleague, Billy James, said Mr Christmas was a ‘people person with enormous heart’ who rose from humble beginnings.
“Max always had a dream in his heart and a project to achieve,” he said.
“His belief and winning mantra was so much more than just a passion - it was a raging fire inside. He was always there for the battler. Max was a leader of men.”
Mr Christmas’s ashes were scattered at sea by a flotilla of surf boats and rubber ducks.
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Originally published as Max Christmas memorial: Remembering Gold Coast real estate icon at Surfers Paradise Surf Lifesaving Club
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