God Bless Us Everyone

Christmas is without a doubt my most favorite time of year. The twinkling lights, red and green bows, fragrant garland, and holiday music bring out my true holly-jolly spirit, and London overflows with potential festive activities to add to the mood. One of our favorite activities this year delved into Dickens’ Christmas Carol along with the evolution of the many special Christmas traditions in Britain. We followed an adorable, period dressed guide through the narrow streets and alleyways of old London seeing the sights where Dickens found inspiration and set many of the scenes in his beloved Christmas story of Ebenezer Scrooge.


To round out our Christmas events, we saw the National Ballet’s Nutcracker and two Royal Philharmonic Christmas concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. One of the concerts, Candlelight Carols, featured an orchestra in 1700’s costumes, bible reading of the birth of Jesus, Dickens’ Christmas Carol reading, portions of Handel’s Messiah, and of course, well know sing-a-long carols.


Adding to the atmosphere, we have experienced several snows already, and the one today took our breath away (partly because of the beauty and partly because we have tickets to leave town tomorrow yet fear the weather might keep us from going). Ken and I strolled through St. James Park even as the snow continued to fall. The view of both Buckingham Palace and the Horse Guard building at opposite ends of the frozen lake looked picture postcard perfect with the snow covered trees surrounding them. Ken had taken a bag of nuts to feed the squirrels, and I felt so sorry for the little guys with their cold, wet fur. Because they were so hungry, they took the nuts right out of Ken’s hands stuffing several into their cheeks to save for later.


Since Ken’s project in London finished this week, we felt that bringing in the holidays here ended our time in London perfectly. We will miss this city that offers so many uniquely wonderful experiences but look forward to coming back someday.