It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
From the Pimlico Plumbers with their Christmas lights cheering everyone who’s going West from Waterloo Station to the good folk at Westminster Council who turned the Eros statue into a snow dome at Piccadilly Circus we love London at Christmas time.
Mirth as well as frost is in the air. Even though the delightfully decorated stores on Oxford Street are packed and the hordes are out in there thousands somehow the season of goodwill makes us all happier and more tolerant towards our fellow commuters. And who doesn’t love seeing Santa boarding the tube this time of year?
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We give thanks to those who made the British Christmas what it is today. The Victorian’s who bought the German custom of decorating a tree into our parlors. King Henry the VIII who it was rumoured was one of the first to have Turkey to eat at Christmas and the Tudors who bought us Minst Pye’s, although with lamb being one of the main ingredients they are a little different to the minced pies we know and love today.
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The ‘Frost Fair’s’ that sprung up when the Thames used to freeze over have been replaced with outdoor ice-skating at Somerset House and royalty no longer gets a sleigh to travel unlike King Henry the VIII who travelled up the Thames in one from Whitehall to Greenwich. We love Christmas in London!
And to those who bought us the festive drinks of mulled wine, egg nog, hot apple cider and Champagne cocktails you have a special place in our hearts, but more about those next week..