Christmas Arrived To London II

Definitely Christmas is more magical in London. How amazing it is to have events planned to commemorate the switching on of Christmas Lights! Some may find it too much and too early. Well, I agree with “too early” when they did it for Oxford Street in the 1^st November. But I love extravagance, and with Christmas I can’t get enough of it, because I’ve never seen such a great spectacle about it as I am experiencing now.

Yesterday, the lights were on in Regent Street. It was a funny situation, actually. After the countdown we really didn’t see any lights turning on, and we could hear some laughs in the crowd. I was like “Did I miss something?!”. Then I could understand what was going on: the street is decorated with tiny little lights, uniting both sides of the street, and then there are hanged what looks like watches’ internal mechanisms – sprockets. In these sprockets, that don’t have lights, they were projecting an animated movie, a very beautiful one, which ended with the slogan “Timeless Elegance” and with a (still too soon, I agree with that) Merry Christmas. It was indeed beautiful and original, unexpected. But well, this is London, and I am learining that the unexpected is always behind the corner 🙂

23-IMG_2407 — Christmas Lights Switching on in Regent Street

Before the show in Regent Street, my friend and I went for a big walk. Our day started with World Press Photo 2015 Exhibition (so interesting, and free), and then we went to Somerset House to give a quick look to the Skate Ring in there. I just wanted to see the decorations. There was a big Christmas three and, inside the building, the most beautiful Christmas store, with the most expensive Christmas products. Not for my wallet for sure, but the space is so elegant, so classical, that it was a true pleasure to go there. The decorations were beautifully made, so chic…the chocolates were looked tasty, but so gorgeous and cute that I am not sure if I would eat them….

05-IMG_2302 — Skate Ring in Somerset House

01-IMG_2289 — Christmas Department at Somerset House

After crying for a few minutes on what my friend and I couldn’t afford to buy (figuratively, of course), we went to visit Convent Garden. If there is a place where you have to go when you’re in London during Christmas time, that place is definitely Convent Garden. I mean, Convent Garden is pretty awesome during all year. But yesterday it was marvelous, with a big Christmas tree, a big silver deer, all decorated in its inside corridors… the dream for any Christmas lover 🙂

We went to some other places (I will write about them in another time – this is exclusively a Christmassy post), and thanks to my kind landlady I got to discover one of the most famous stores in London: Liberty. It is beautiful indeed, in a building on Tudor style, which reminded of British series that I love, of History, the kind of building that I imagine it might have been the home of many people, probably poor people, labor class, sleeping in what now are amazing rooms but the kind of rooms that in harsh times were dirty, dusty and untidy. But this is just my head and imagination going wild ( I did some research, and the store actually opened in 1875. It has 140 years old!). The store is just amazing, with beautiful windows and, of course, there was an entire section dedicated to (luxury) Christmas, and then you can imagine how suffering it was for me and to my friend to look at all those stuff without being able to afford any !