Well,
it’s our first Christmas season in London,
and despite the crowds, the city sure knows how to deck the halls.
On
my days off, I’ve sought out some of the popular places to see for pretty
Christmas decorations. By 4 p.m., the city is blanketed in darkness and the Christmas
lights are turned on. Such a beautiful sight!
 |
| Christmas ice skating at the Natural History Museum. |
The
only problem is that everyone – including your mother and her best friends and hordes
of children and tourists – goes to see the Christmas lights as well. Be
prepared to elbow your way through the crowds if you want to see the décor like
I did. I even went on weekdays to see most of the sites below.
Anyway,
London is all dressed up for the holidays. Christmas only comes once a year, so
I guess I can bear the crowds to take some pretty photos. Enjoy!
Winter Wonderland
We
almost avoided London’s biggest attraction of Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park because of the maddening crowds and
security checks – way different from my weekday visit in 2013??? After work, we
met up with a fellow American to walk around Wonderland, which is more
carnival-like than Christmas market-like. We ended up spending a few hours in
the Bavarian section drinking mulled wine and eating German bratwurst around an
outdoor fire – an activity more adult-friendly than the rest of the park.
Recently,
I had a Saturday off from work so we spent the gray day exploring the numerous
Christmas markets that are set up between London Bridge and Waterloo train
stations. Along the Thames River, we found dozens of wooden huts selling all
kinds of food, drinks and Christmas gifts. We concluded our Christmas market
crawl at a market by Waterloo and took refuge from the pouring rain at a craft
beer stand where we shared a Korean rice bowl. Nearby was a Polish food stand
making bigos and serving Zywiec beer.
Besides
Winter Wonderland, this area of grand shopping from Regent Street to Picadilly
Circus is the most touristy of all. However, this shopping stretch gets a Christmas
makeover with garlands of lights down the length of the road. On Oxford Street alone,
you’ll see 1,778 snowball-like decorations and 750,000 LED lightbulbs lit up for
what is the fifty-seventh year the road has been decorated for the holidays.
Beware of the crowds, but Covent Garden’s cobbled piazza and old market buildings are irresistible when they are covered in Christmas lights. This year’s decorations include a mistletoe theme, with over 40 mistletoe chandeliers hanging over the area’s streets and in the pretty market buildings. I retreated into the Lauduree store to stock up on a box of pastel Parisian macarons.
I
found this Christmasy street thanks to Instagram. Carnaby Street, a small
laneway off Regent Street, is decked out in a theme to match the V&A Museum’s
new exhibition ‘You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970’.
Carnaby Christmas decorations – usually among the most distinctive in town –
will remain on display until January 6th.
Harrods
Possibly
the most famous London Christmas lights on a single store are at Harrods, a well-to-do Knightsbridge
department store that was established in 1849 selling mainly tea and groceries.
To me, Harrods, decked out in its Art Nouveau windows, terracotta tiles and
hundreds of lights, is like visiting 5th Avenue in my beloved NYC during Christmas. The store is
filled with many high-end brands, but you’ll also find a few things that normal
people can afford.
Even
though we still have leftover moving boxes in our much-smaller apartment, I convinced
hubby to get a Christmas tree. We haven’t had a real tree since we lived in Poland and I missed having one. And now
our tree is splashed out with decorations from places we’ve lived or traveled
to – Istanbul, Warsaw, London, U.S., a tablecloth from Riga, a German village
house and more.
Happy
Holidays!
Joy
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1 comments:
merry xmas joy!!!
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