It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Well, one thing that cannot be denied – London does Christmas big. Over the past couple of weeks I have been trying to take advantage of every “holiday-ish” thing that is taking place in London. Each major street has its own ceremonial turning on of the lights celebration. Since lights have been up on the streets since before Halloween many of these celebrations had taken place before I even started to realize the holidays had “begun.” However, on a Thursday night about two weeks ago we were able to catch the last ceremony on Bond Street as our Thursday night girls’ night. The stores stayed open late (stores here usually close between 6 – 7, not like at home where they are open until 9!) and offered hot chocolate, mulled wine, free samples of certain hair supplies, perfumes, and more. The lights were suppose to come on promptly at 6 p.m., however, London seems to work on its own time so around 6:15 there was a round of fireworks and the lights were turned on. The evening was completed with fake snow being blown from the upper story windows, which turned straight to soap suds as soon as it mixed with the steady drizzle of the rain which was falling that night in London (a bit slippery but clean). London does Christmas lights on steroids, but they are gorgeous! Whole buildings are covered with lights and big bows. On Saturday, Eastern Boy and I attempted some Christmas shopping on Oxford Street. The officials had closed the street to cars because of the enormous number of people shopping; there wasn’t enough room on the sidewalks. There were lines outside stores to get inside and lines inside stores to see an item. It was crazy. Needless to say, we didn’t get a lot of shopping done! However, it was great fun walking down the middle of Oxford Street listening to the groups of carollers, which had gathered to provide entertainment and set the Christmas spirit.

The night before the shopping trip I gathered a couple of friends together for ice skating in Hyde Park. The night was clear and cold, but strolling around on the ice under the stars it didn’t feel so unbearable. Eastern Boy had never ice skated at all and Anne and I had never ice skated outside, while Em was the pro from Canada who showed us all up with fancy footwork and backwards skating. A fun time was had by all. The skating rink was located in the middle of a Christmas Festival called “Winter Wonderland” and was complete with carnival rides, a Christmas market, festive food vendors and of course, ice skating! Since Thanksgiving is an American tradition naturally it is not celebrated in England. However, I decided the holiday could not be overlooked. On Thursday, several American friends and I made reservations at a restaurant advertising an American Thanksgiving meal. Overall the dinner was quite good (with the exception of the mac and cheese which was a little too hard to eat); we enjoyed each others’ company the most. On Sunday, a friend from Greenville hosted a potluck Thanksgiving meal at her house. We cooked and ate with many of the women with whom I am beginning to become good friends. We ate and ate and ate until the major topic was focused on napping. The event was just the perfect medicine to heal the homesickness I had been feeling.