It's Starting To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Well the past month there has been a lot of different Christmas things going on in London. The first Christmas activity that I have had the opportunity to experience was seeing the Christmas lights turn on, on the main streets downtown. We missed the ones on Oxford Street but we caught the Bond Street lights one Thursday night. I headed to the street with my friend Dash to find a few free giveaways of hair products and hot chocolate! We also had our first London snow fall that night....although once it hit the ground it turned into some good soap suds! We were not sure what to expect of the lights, we were informed that they would turn on at 6pm at 6:15 we saw the lights turn on and we said that's it? Just as we were disappointed in our night a ton of fireworks were set off at a nearby building. Once the lights were turned on we walked further down the street to see some choirs, ice sculptures, people on stilts and even some reindeer!

Me in the "snow"

Bond Street Fireworks

Reindeer!

We continued to walk down Oxford Street that night and those lights are quite more impressive than the Bond street ones, but was still really cool to see all the festivities.

The next big Christmas thing in London are the markets. Germany is well known for having amazing Christmas markets so London tries there best to have German inspired markets. In Hyde Park there is a Christmas Wonderland which is like a mini amusement park. There are tons of rides for you to go on including a mini ferris wheel. Since it is German inspired there is a Bavarian Village where you can get some beer, hot chocolate with shots and some mulled wine (which I yet have to try...although heard it is NOT good!) There is even an outdoor ice rink! My friends coming from warmer climates got excited at the thought of it,and no matter how expensive it was, wanted to go skating. I figured it would be fun to go as well, so we each paid 13 pounds for a skate rental and an hour on the ice. Well when I was handed the skates I said your kidding right? They were bright blue and reminded me of roller blades (aka no laces!) and even had some good rust on them. Once I was on the ice it was fun to watch people falling all over the place and either having the death grip on the boards or a fellow friend. I was quite impressed with my friends skating abilities considering that they have not had the opportunities to learn to skate like in Canada.

Me looking like a giant with Anne & Dash

The last Christmas activity that we have attended is the tree lighting ceremony at Trafalgar Square. The Christmas tree is huge and is a gift to the people of London from the people of Norway in gratitude for Britain's support for Norway during World War II. Again we were not sure what to expect of this event, if there would be fireworks, singing or a ton of lights everywhere. When I got there all I could see was the massive lights, but no lights on yet as they were again weren't supposed to turn on until 6pm. There was a lot of people close to the tree so was hard to get in real close. Pretty well right on time the lights turned on the big Christmas tree and shortly after the lights went on, so did the fountains. It was pretty cool to see but to be honest I was quite disappointed by these lights too as it was just a few strings of lights. You would think if this ceremony happens every year that they would have a ton of lights for the tree just as they have for the streets of London.

Trafalgar Square

It has been quite cold lately so that night we basically saw the lights turn on and ran to go grab a drink at a pub near by. I was getting a bit depressed on how cold it was here (I thought I was getting away from the bitter cold of Canada...well at least a bit of it) but last week it finally snowed! It was so nice to see some snow on the ground, but once it snows people do not know what to do here! In London most things stayed open although quite a few of my friends did not get any work during the "snowy days" and cities further north even had 2 snow days! It got a bit warmer this weekend and all of the snow melted away, I think that is the way I like snow. To come for a bit and then go away! Well London really loves the Christmas time and does as many things to put people in the Christmas spirit.

London's 1st snow fall and the Londoners have their brellys out to brave the snow!

While I like being here and experiencing all the Christmas cheer, I can't help but be excited to come home for the holidays. My entire family will be home for Christmas so it will be nice to have us all in the same country for more than a few days this time! I even have a count down going....only 11 more days until I fly home! (Excited much?) Can't wait to be home to see everyone for a little while and enjoy some more Christmas cheer at home! Remember only another 11 more days!!!