Christmas

CHRISTMAS

London at Christmas time is excellent for shopping, for festive attractions and many breathtaking activities for children, making the city a popular destination to visit for young and old alike. The city is adorned with lights, Christmas trees, mistletoe, nativity scenes and thousands dressed as Santa Claus many of whom can be seen out on the streets collecting for charities. There are many carol services and concerts and the peculiarly British form of popular theatre, known as pantomime.

Forty million shoppers visit the main shopping thoroughfares central London over the Christmas period and one in four are from abroad. The weakness of Sterling against the Euro currency has led to the number of visitors from Europe overtaking the number from the United States, who in previous years have accounted for half of the two billion pounds spent by foreign visitors in central London each year. Visitors are up fifteen per cent from the Middle East, likewise benefitting from the exchange rate. Oxford Street and Regent Street always have spectacular festive lights, with different themes each year. These Christmas lights are funded by the shops themselves and are famous across the four compass points of the world. The initial switching on ceremony is always a glitzy event attended by many celebrities and their fans.

Open air ice-skating beneath the stars continues through to January the twenty-fourth 2010 in the courtyard of Somerset House. It is one of London’s finest neoclassical buildings, right in the heart of central London, providing a beautiful backdrop for the skaters.

The Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park is an exciting day out with funfairs, grottos, Christmas markets, ice-skating, a German food market, Zippos Circus and a giant observation wheel offering fine views over the surroundings. Winter Wonderland continues until January the third 2010. Entry is free and tokens for the rides and the grotto can be purchased on the day of visiting. Tickets for ice-skating, the wheel and the circus must be purchased in advance. Information for this event and all the others mentioned in this article, are easily found on the Internet.

London’s New Year Day Parade starts at noon on January the First, setting off from Piccadilly and finishing around three in the afternoon on Parliament Street. This will be the twenty-fourth New Year’s Day Parade in the capital, with more than 10,000 performers from over twenty countries worldwide taking part. More than half a million people line the streets to see what is always a spectacular occasion. The event is broadcast across the globe allowing millions to see the marching bands, cheerleaders, clowns, acrobats, giant balloons, vintage vehicles and much else besides.

Church services and carol services take place at most of London’s hundreds of churches, including St Paul’s Cathedral. Also, there is a series of carol services held in Trafalgar Square, under the huge Christmas tree positioned there each year.

Children can meet Father Christmas in Santa’s Grotto at Harrods department store up until to Christmas Eve and there is also a grotto at Selfridges. Also very popular, The English National Ballet performs The Nutcracker at The London Coliseum until the twenty-fourth of January 2010. The Hackney Empire theatre performs an annual pantomime, a long standing tradition and this year Aladdin is their treat.

Where to view video clips of Christmas  and video clips of London

London in motion has some of the best London Stock Footage and London Library Footage with moving clips of many of the above mentioned places to see, are available to browse through by simply visiting the ‘Christmas’ category of this website.  New additions of London video clips are being frequently uploaded and further categories will be appearing over the coming months.