Results matching “Christmas”

This month, I received the Craft Gin Club gin monthly subscription box for December of 2025. The Craft Gin Club subscription box contains a full-sized bottle of gin, mixers, snacks, and a magazine (The Stir) with food and drink recipes using the gin. December 2025 month's full bottle of gin is Hentony Festive Gin, which sold out. The gin is from the Cotswolds in England, and the founders of the distillery are from Poland.

I received different snacks and mixers to pair with the gin. 

Schweppes Tonic Water: This brand of tonic water pairs nicely with the festive gin and lets the flavour of the gin work on its own.

Heartease Farm Sparkling Apple and Pear: This Welsh sparking apple and pear juice is made to use the monthly cocktail and tastes refreshing and is good enough to have on its own or made to mix with gin.

Angostura Cocoa Bitters: This brand creates bitters to add to drinks. A couple of dashes will transform your drink into a subtle flavpur for cocktails, mocktails, or othr dishes.

Goodrays CBD elderflower drink: This drink can be paired with gin or on its own and uses natural ingredients.

Brothers Toffee Apple Cider: This Somerset brand of drink can be enjoyed on its own or mixed with gin, and it uses real apples and ingredients.

Crosta Mollica fennel seed tarallini: I love this brand as they make many delicious products, and I loved to receive these little savoury biscuits that pair nicely with cheese and cocktails.

Savoursmiths Christmas Ham with Umami Truffle Glaze: This brand uses fine ingredients and comes up with unique and tasy flavours. I was not sure about these as I do not eat pork, but they are vegan.

Copperpot Gingerbread Fudge: This brand comes from Cornwall, and I've previously had their fudge before and enjoyed it. It does pair nicely with the festive gin.

Taylors Toasted Marshmallow Popcorn: I love popcorn, and this was delicious and tasted of toasted marshmallow. 

I also received a Christmas Gin Bellini syrup for the monthly cocktail and dried orange and cinnmon to garnish my gin and tonic this month.

Happy New Year's Eve to all of my readers, and I hope that 2025 lived up to your expectations. This year for me was a little more balanced in some ways, but it has its ups and downs as well. I decided to go into this year with few expectations so that I would not be disappointed. This year, there was a focus on healthy living and fitness. Although I visited two new destinations outside of the United Kingdom and travelled to two that I had been to before, I did not get to do quite as much travel as I would have liked to. There were some reasons for this - namely work, an injury, agendas/plans with others, and cost. Read below to see my review of each month this year and my plans for 2026.

January:

January started out a little bit slow, which was actually quite nice after several busy years. My mind felt more relaxed, and I took in the new year with some walks around London and to visit Duke of York Square where there is a Saturday food market (Duke of York Square Saturday Food Market) that I visited a few times during the month and bought some delicious foods, and I also paid my last visit to Patridges, which closed its doors this year. I enjoyed the food hall because it had so many wonderful items and unique food-related gifts. Duke of York Square also hosted a few sculptures, Lobsteropolis at Duck of York Square, London, because the artist had his work displayed at the gallery.

I also attended the annual Canary Wharf Winter Lights 2025, and I enjoyed the light sculptures this year. This event always brings colour to the cold and dark winter days, and I loved the displays this year and felt that they were better than the past few years.

I also visited Battersea Light Festival 2025 this year and was also impressed with the light sculptures. When I was in Battersea, I enjoyed Cocktails at Control Room B, Battersea Power Station. The cocktails were served in different glasses inspired by the history of the venue as a power station. Westfield in west London also had a small light trail, and I visited this a few weeks later: Here We Glow Lights up Westfield London.

Chinese New Year fell at the end of the month, and I celebrated Chinese New Year at Bang Bang Oriental. There is so much selection for Asian street food, and there is also a supermarket, bakery, and more. The portions are also very large and more than enough for two meals.

February:

At the start of the month, I went to see the large sculpture of the sun at Helios at the Bath Assembly Rooms (Bath and Somerset, National Trust), which is the new planetary sculpture from Luke Jerram, and the visit reminded me of my time spent living in the city of Bath. I also went to Prior Park in Bath (Bath and Somerset, National Trust) while I was in the city; I actually never visited this beautiful place when I was living in Bath. Since I had seen the sun sculpture from Luke Jerram, I saw that the moon one was also on display a couple of weekends later at St. Albans (Museum of the Moon at St. Albans Cathedral), so I also visited that. This was the first of Jerram's planetary sculptures and has been on my list to see for awhile. I am glad that I have seen it inside the beautiful St. Albans Cathedral as the sculptures do look amazing in the historical settings.

One of my good friends turned 40 later this year, so she planned for a group of us to go to see an Abba tribute in Woking: Coppid Beech Hotel Party Package with ABBA. We stayed overnight and had cocktails and afternoon tea and used the spa before watching the tribute act. 

Valentine's Day is in February, but I never do anything special for it; I love the hearts and special themes for the day. When I was in London, I went to check out the treats at one of the usual spots that do nice treats: Valentine's Day at Peggy Porschen.

Toward the end of the month of February, I had my first ever visit to Vienna in Austria. My cousin was staying there to do some research, so I decided to plan a visit to the city to explore it as I had some annual leave to use before the end of March. I have always wanted to go to Vienna, so I am glad that I got to go (February Travel to Vienna, Austria). I went to Kunsthistorisches (Art History Museum), Schonbrunn Palace, Schönbrunn Zoo, Schonbrunn Gardens in Vienna, St. Stephen's Cathedral, and listened to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Mozart at Musikverein. I also saw some Street Art in Vienna. I also stayed at Hotel Imperial Vienna.

March:

Pancake Day was in early March this year, and I had pancakes at My Old Dutch in Chelsea and went to watch the Better Bankside Pancake Day Race on South Bank, which was my first time to watch this particular Pancake Day race. It was not as large as some of the other pancake day race events, but it was a beautiful warm and sunny day. I watched a large dinosaur and someone dressed as "Batman" in the race.

At the end of March, I spent a few days in Wales and stayed at Treffedian Hotel in Aberdovey, a family-owned hotel that I stayed at many years ago with someone who had meant a lot to me at the time. I remembered that visit many years ago and the large expanses of sand dunes from the hotel out to the sea, so I wanted to return. This beautiful hotel comes with the traditional board - breakfast and dinner. The menus change each night for the dinner, and it is three courses.

My Wales visit included a lot of castle and former religious sites and National Trust and English Heritage visits. I went to the following: Grosmont Castle, White Castle (Monmouthshire, Wales), Skenfrith Castle (Monmouthshire, Wales), Harlech Castle (Gwynedd, Wales), Talley Abbey (Carmarthenshire, Wales), Dryslywn Castle (Carmarthenshire, Wales), Raglan Castle (Monmouthshire, Wales), Castle Y Bere, Cymer in Gwynedd, Wales, and Llanthony Priory in Monmouthshire, Wales. Castle Y Bere was one of the favourites as the landscape was picturesque and memorable. It was free to visit and down a narrow track, but the views are stunning over the Welsh countryside.

In addition to the castles and ruined abbeys/priories, I visited some historic houses and a former mine. One memorable visit was a house and a castle on a hillside a short walk away: Newton House at Dinefwr and Dinefwr Castle (National Trust: Carmarthenshire, Wales). Dolaucothi Gold Mines (National Trust, Carmarthenshire) was an interesting place where a guide told us about the history of the Roman gold mining operation here and its use later in years. Tretower Court and Castle was also a nice medieval home to visit with a castle a short walk away. Llanchaeron (National Trust: Ceredigion, Wales) was a large home with farm and gardens to explore.

While in Wales, I also stopped off at Sugarloaf Winery for wine tasting and lunch on the way into Wales and also sevral days later at Gwin Dylanwad Wine Tasting at Dolgellau, Wales for wine tasting in northern Wales. I also visited the beautiful town of Portmeirion: A Visit to Portmeirion in Wales. This was my second ever visit to Portmeirion after visiting when I stayed in the area all those years ago. The day was lovely, and I enjoyed the visit in the picturesque grounds, which are famous for starring in "The Prisoner" television series.

One other memorable place that I spent some time at while in Wales was Dolgach Falls. I enoyed a walk to the waterfalls and then up the hill for some beautiful views, up the stream to additional waterfalls. The trip was only over a few days, but I was able see so a lot.

April:

After a busy February and March, I had a quieter April. London is beautiful to visit in the spring, and Easter fell in the middle of the month. A friend and I had Spring Afternoon Tea at The Savoy, London. I also enjoyed walking around the park to see the beautiful daffodil displays: Happy Easter 2025. The weather was becoming very nice with warm and sunny days.

I also enjoyed a couple of trips out to London to see the The Big Egg Hunt Returned to London in 2025. The last big exhibition of these was just over ten years ago, so I was happy to see it return to the city as I loved it. I enjoyed seeing the different decorated eggs and walking around London to locate them all.

A friend and I also got to enjoy a bottomless brunch at Daisy Green, London as a late gift to me. I had been longing to visit here for awhile after a disappointed visit a couple of years ago where they did not offer the bottomless brunch on the day and time that I visited. I enjoyed the food here, and the brunch was good although I had to watch after my friend as he got very ill. 

May:

In early May, there were street parties across the country to honour VE Day, and my road had one. The weather was not great as it was very cold, but I managed to get outside and have a chat and share food and drink with neighbours. There were a few games, but it was quite cold and windy. I enjoyed meeting new neighbours and catching up with old ones.

I also managed to watch a live recording of one of the semi-finals of "Britain's Got Talent" that one friend secured tickets for: Unblogged Spring 2025. In the middle of the month, I hosted the Eurovision Song Contest and visited Daws Hill Vineyard near High Wycombe for a wine tour and tasting, which I enjoyed.

Toward the end of the month, I visited the annual Chelsea in Bloom 2025, which coincides with the flower show. I did not think it was as good as some of the previous displays, but it did have a lot of colour, and I managed to visit on a day where the weather was warm and overcast so that I was able to get some decent photographs.

I returned to Vienna for the second time toward the end of the month as I have always wanted to see the city in bloom. My cousin was meant to be there, but he had to go back early, so I just explored alone and spent one day with one of my colleagues in the city. I went to the following places in Vienna: A Visit to Prater Theme Park, Galleries at Upper and Lower Belvedere and Belvedere 21 in Vienna, Belvedere Gardens in Vienna, Dinner and Birthday Cake at ROLLERCOASTERRESTAURANT, Vienna Alpine Gardens, Schoenbrunn Palace. I also enjoyed Champagne Breakfast at Sacher in Vienna. Spring is a beautiful time to visit Vienna, and the parks are all in bloom: Spring Visit to Vienna, Austria. I loved the gardens in bloom in the city, which was far different than in my February visit while they were dormant and devoid of colour.

At the end of the month, I had the afternoon off and a walk to Pinner to enjoy An Afternoon at the 688th Pinner Fair. The fair takes place on one day each year, and it is a day filled with games and entertainment for the community set in the centre of Pinner. The day felt like spring and was lovely to see the community out to enjoy the day.

June:

The weather became nice in June, and after the previous walk to Pinner a few days before, I had another nice walk to Pinner after work and enjoyed some cocktails and good food at Awadh in Pinner. Early in the month, I also enjoyed Afternoon Tea at Tudor Hotel in Eastcote Pinner, which I had been wanting to visit when I've walked past before because it is an interesting Tudor-style building. Since the weather was starting to get nice and spring-like, I wanted to get out a bit more.

June is my birthday month, but I did not have a large celebration this year as everyone was busy, but I had a couple of smaller gatherings for dinners. For my birthday, I bought an ice cream cake. My birthday was one of the hottest days of the year, so getting the cake was a little bit of a challenge. A friend and I had bottomless brunch in London in a rooftop bar at The Aviary in London as a birthday treat (because he got ill in our spring visit and I had to look after him). I also had a meal out with friends after work at Izgara in Hatch End. More birthday photographs can be seen here: Birthday 2025.

At the end of the month, I had a week away with a few days in Norfolk, Essex, and Suffolk area. I have been wanting to go to the Sandringham Estate for several years now. I finally got to go this year, and I had Sunday lunch after a tour around the house and gardens. I enjoyed the visit and tour.

While in this area, I visited a few castles and National Trust and English Heritage properties: Oxburgh Hall Estate (National Trust: Norfolk), Peckover House and Garden (Cambridgeshire, National Trust), Castle Rising Castle (Norfolk), Flatford Mill (National Trust, Suffolk), Castle Acre Castle in Norfolk, and Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk. Castle Acre (pictured below) are grounds of a castle which the town is named after, and there is an interesting priory a short drive away. I thought that the grounds were picturesque.

I stayed for a fw days at Potters Resorts Five Lakes in Essex. I did a lot of crafts when I was there, and it was the type of break that I had never done before but interesting. I learned how to do iris folding (card-making), and I really enjoyed this. I did some other activities too and took some time out for a break.

July:

The month of July started with an adventure to visit the Air Raid Cafe in High Wycombe for breakfast before this much-loved cafe closed as it is trying to locate a new location. I loved the cafe with its quirkly historic war-time rooms and items. While I was there, I also visited Hughenden (National Trust, Buckinghamshire), which is a short drive away.

The weather continued to be amazing in July. I have been wanting to visit The Cheese Barge for years, and my friends and I finally got to visit here and share a selection of different foods. This is the type of place that is best to visit with multiple friends so that you can try different things. The food was delicious here, and I would love to go back.

On one of the hottest days of the year, I had the morning off to visit Moor Park Mansion (Rickmansworth, London), which is located not too far away. I had a tour of the mansion and learned the history and enoyed a drink in the bar. It is now a golf course, but there are tours run every now and then to see inside. The mansion has history during the Tudor times with Henry VIII.

The annual Whitecross Street Party 2025 was held in the middle of July again. This was my first visit on one of the street party days itself, which is open to the community and draws large crowds. It is known for its street art as many street artists do visit and paint (or create) on the day. I went to check it out and see the street art being created. 

Toward the end of the month, I had a weekend in Bristol to see the sculpture trail Gromit Unleashed 3. As I took the train to Bristol this time and was only there for a short time, I only got to see the sculptures that were accessible within the centre of Bristol. A few days before my visit, I had hurt my toe and was struggling to walk a lot but made the most by adjusting my stride. In the long term, I damaged my foot even worse; it's still not fully healed. I developed plantar fasciitis after the big toe eventually got better after several weeks. I am doing what I can to recover,  but it has been very trying.

At the end of the month, friends and I met up and had lunch out and visited Hinton Ampner (National Trust: Hampshire) to have a short walk and admire the gardens. My foot was painful, so I did not get to do a long walk. I also wanted it to heal as much as possible before my visit to Rhodes in August.

August:

I spent a long weekend in Rhodes in early August, and I got to see a little bit of the island but wished that I had had more time to spend on the Greek Island. I had a couple of days trips, and I got to see, Kritinia Castle, Rhodes Clock Tower, Embonas Wine Area of Rhodes, Kallithea Springs in Rhodes, Elafos Hotel and Saint Nikolaos Fountoukli, Rhodes Archeological Museum, Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, Ancient Kamiros Acropolis, Rhodes Old Town Walls, and Rhodes Old Town. I enjoyed to see the history of Rhodes and the ruins, and there are so many beautiful places on the island.

One of my favourite places was Lindos, where I had a visit to the Acropolis at Lindos, Rhodes. The walk up to the acropolis was amazing, and I enjoyed the views. I also loved the community cats around the island, which are all looked after and can be found on the streets: Cats of Rhodes.

During the week after work, I went with a couple of friends to my first ever cricket game at Lord's Cricket Ground for the Hundreds. One of my friends has a membership, so we got to be in the VIP area. We brought champagne and picnic food, and the weather was beautiful.

I also managed to get to the new Lucy Sparrow's Bourdon Street Chippy exhibition. Everything was made of felt, and readers would have seen me post about her other exhibitions before.

At the last Bank Holiday in August, the weather was amazing. I had a walk to Headstone Manor in Northwest London. On that day, there was a special market and village show: Headstone Village Show - Diamond Anniversary 2025. I had been wanting to visit this historical place for a few years, and I finally got the long walk in. 

On the last weekend of the month, I had a day trip to Birmingham to see the sculpture trail Bulls in The City. This took me all around the city. I also got to have a tour of the Birmingham Back to Backs: National Trust. I loved the tour, which I thought was done really well and allowed me to see how different families lived in these houses. Seeing how the average people lived in the past is interesting because a lot of the ways of life and homes do not exist anymore.

The summer this year was beautiful, and I did spend a lot of the time walking, exercising, and enjoying drinks in the garden: Unblogged Summer 2025. The only issue was my foot, which was still badly hurt and took forever for the big toe to heal from being badly damaged. The plantar fasciitis did not come until the end of the month and no doubt made worse because I did not care for it but equally did not know what the issue was, and the doctors also did not help.

September:

After a busy August, September was very quiet. I did not have much planned as I had hurt my foot and was trying to recover from that. I did meet a couple of ex-colleagues that I am still friends with, and we went to her little tea shop: The Little Tea House in Barnet. The food was delicious, and we had a great time catching up. 

In the middle of the month, I visited Frieze Sculpture in Regent's Park 2025. This is an annual sculpture exhibition held outdoors in Regents Park every year, and it is free to visit. This year, I enjoyed the sculptures when compared to the past couple of years. There was a nice selection.

October:

October was a busy month to counteract the largely-uneventful September. I had a few different visits with groups of friends. I started the month with Sherlock Holmes Boozy Afternoon Tea, which I really enjoyed. I had afternoon tea and solved a table-top mystery. This was followed by a couple of different intelligence games in their bar and a couple of different Sherlock-themed cocktails. I also loved the Victorian decor, and I enjoyed reading some poems out of the vintage book.

The harvest and Halloween mood started in the middle of October, and I visited friends in Hampshire and returned to a lovely pub, The Milbury in Beauworth, which we visited earlier in the summer. After the pub, we ended up taking a long walk around the estate at Hinton Ampner (National Trust, Hampshire) and admiring the autumn and harvest decorations. They display the harvest decorations across the gardens each year, but this year was the first that I got to visit them.

Another friend came to visit, and we enjoyed a visit to Audley End House and Gardens (Essex: English Heritage). Afterwards, we went to the pumpkin patch and toured Halloween tunnels at Cammas Hall Farm. The pumpkin displays there are amazing, and they had a Halloween-themed mosaic wall made out of different colours of pumpkins and squash. The pumpkin patch is open each October, but this was my first visit. They also do Halloween nights and live music, and this gets busy and more spooky on the week that children are off from school.

My friend and I had bottomless drinks and pizza locally in Ruislip: Pizza and Pornstars at Anabella's in Ruislip. I also went out with another couple of friends to enjoy Halloween Afternoon Tea and Cocktails at Roast in London. Roast is located at Borough Market, and they really do decorate the room well, and they do themed cocktails.  

Diwali was a couple of weeks before Halloween this year, but I did not do anything for it. On the day before Halloween, I had a evening out after work. I went to Avora Immersive Cocktail Experience in London, which is immersive theatre paired with different cocktails and set on a different planet with some actors/actresses being a species from the planet Avora. (There are some similarities in this story to the "Avatar" film.)

That day, I also went to the Pumpkin Lantern Festival at Dalston Eastern Curve Garden. This was wonderful to experience as there are many hundreds of carved and lit pumpkins to enjoy while walking around the community event. During the day, people can also carve their own pumpkins. As always, London was decorated for Halloween, and it seems to be a bigger deal every year: Halloween in London 2025. As autumn drew to a close, I also enjoyed the fall decorations and went to see Michael McIntyre twice this month as a couple of friends got tickets: UnBlogged Autumn 2025.

November:

November was also a busy month. November started with Bonfire Night 2025, and I went to the Ruislip Rugby Club with friends again to enjoy the display. This was the only local display this year.

Another friend and I went to 1990s bar and club in Covent Garden, Bunga 90s. There was meant to be a group of us, but two of the four dropped out. I loved the themed cocktails and sections of the club, and the food looked good. Each area of the club was a throwback to something in the 1990s from "The Simpsons" to "Sonic the Hedgehog", "Spice Girls" to "Take That", Britney Spears to "FRIENDS", and popular toys to films.

The following weekend in the middle of November, I visited Birmingham Christmas Market with a couple of friends. It was a bit of a rushed trip as we got to Birmingham late, and then we walked around the city and market. Our train back was at mid-day, and we just about managed to eat breakfast (we ended up in a long queue) before we rushed out to get the train with not too long to spare. I actually did not buy anything. We also did not drink as one of my friends had been ill and was on antibiotics.

At the end of the month, I jetted off to New York City to spend Thanksgiving there and to see the parade. I had a wander around the city to see some of the attractions and Christmas decorations (Christmas Decorations in New York City), and I spent some time with my cousin who lives in New York City. The highlight of the trip was watching the Balloon Inflation in Central Park and the 99th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2025. Afterwards, I had Thanksgiving dinner with my cousin at Bryant Park: Happy Thanksgiving 2025. I absolutely loved watching the parade, and the weather was perfect for it.

December:

I arrived in Ohio for a few days from the beginning of December: A Snowy Ohio December Visit. The day after I arrived, the snow came and did not disappear during my whole visit. I spent some time with my parents and family, went to some shops, and went to the Amish country. I did not spend long in Ohio.

When I got back into London, I visited Chelsea Winter Illuminations. This was the only opportunity to visit a festive light trail this year. I was pleasantly surprised, and I enjoyed the different displays. Some of them were also interactive. 

After several years of not securing a table at the coveted Claridges for festive afternoon tea, my friends and I managed to finally book. We enjoyed the Festive Afternoon Tea at Claridge's. Inside the tea room, groups of children sang Christmas carols, and this made the experience extra festive. We got a lot of extra sandwiches and had plenty of scones and pastries to take home.

In the run up to Christmas, I enjoyed a few trips around the city to see the festive decorations, window displays, and Christmas lights: Christmas in London 2025. The Christmas decorations and lights came extra early this year with most of them being launched in early November. I always enjoy visiting the city during Christmas, and I was happy that the decorations launched earlier this year to keep back the crowds.

I worked over the festive days and do not have any plans for New Year's Eve except to get caught up on sleep and relax after I finish work, and I may have a drink or two with neighbours. 

Overall, 2025 brought some travel (two visits to Vienna, a visit to Rhodes, and a visit to New York City). There was a little less travel when compared with last year, and I hope that 2026 will allow me to visit more new places. One of the problems that I had was getting time off of work, particularly in the summer months, and I also had the issue with my foot. That made my life challenging. It is still painful, but I am managing.

I was able to look after myself a little more this year and gave my health more of a priority to lose some weight and generally be healthy. I participated in fitness nearly once a week all year and also walked a set number of steps the majority of days. I also managed to read and listen to a lot of audio books on my walks this year. I got through some good books and finished a series of books that I loved and had been listening to for the past couple of years: "The Adams Family Saga" by Mary Jane Staples.  

I hope 2026 is amazing and brings more joy.

Happy holidays to all of my readers. It's that time of year again. Welcome to 2025's edition of London's Christmas lights, displays, and decorations. This year, London decorated much earlier than it has ever done before, and many of the displays were in place from early November. The earlier start meant that I was able to venture out to see the displays and lights without enduring the crazy crowds that were in place last year when I found it much too busy to enjoy myself.

Covent Garden: Covent Garden is always a festive part of London with decorations in the market hall and floral displays inside and outside the building. This year, they have joined with Lego to create a display with Santa and reindeer. In past year's, they would have various Lego sculptures. In addition to the sculptures, they have a Lego pop-up where people can play: "Is it Play You're Looking For?"

In previous years, the following Lego installations appeared at Covent Garden over the holidays: last year's display of elves, 'Christmas Carousel of Creativity', Santa and his reindeer, a large snowglobe filled with London monuments made from Lego, and a large Lego advent calendar which was opened daily. Visitors could sit inside the sleigh and have their photographs taken and were encouraged to use social media to upload them.

The large Christmas tree is also back outside Covent Garden, and there is real snow on the hour every hour.

The floral displays at Covent Garden are always popular.

I did not go out for too many sweets this year because I am shifting some weight, but I did enjoy this popular reindeer cream dessert from Dolce Vyta at Covent Garden.

The Ivy Market Grill usually puts on a display, and this year's was a train and Christmas trees.

 King's Cross: King's Cross always have a festive tree, and this year there are two. One of them is at the Eurostar terminal - "Powered by Dreams", which supports Great Ormond Street children's hospital. The second one is at King's Cross train station and is inspired by "Harry Potter".

Coal Drops Yard: This newer area of London just a few minutes from King's Cross has three Christmas trees to see, and they also host a festive market and foodie market. 

Mayfair: Mayfaire has som beautiful lights and decorations.

Cartier's shop front is one of the best areas to see in London.

Burlington Arcade's decorations this year are "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

The decorations on New Bond Street feature the diamond pattern as used last year.

The shop fronts and decorations are always pretty here.

Connaught Christmas tree this year was previously posted here. 

The wine shop near Berkley Square always does a different display, and this year's was a table.

Anabell's on Berkley Square is also worth a visit, and this year was a theme that reminded me of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe".

Seven Dials: This part of London had the same Christmas lights as last year with the focus on the actual roundabout where the area gets its name.

Nearby in Seven Dials by Covent Garden is a market which always decorates.

Carnaby Street: This street in London used to host amazing displays of Christmas lights, but the last time that it did, it got too busy. The past two years have seen the same light display but with different colours.

Fortnum and Mason: The front of the department store is an advent calendar. The window displays are always worth a look as well.

Leicester Square: The square this year has been transformed into an ice skating rink, though there is a smaller Christmas market here too as usual. Nearby on St. Martin's Lane are an updated series of lights that feature the area's popularity for west end theatre.

Wembley: Wembley has its own light trail featuring different displays, and I really liked the gingerbread house.

They also had some displays with Christmas information, such as origins of Christmas.

The steps outside of Wembley have been made in the design of a Christmas tree.

I also really liked the lit-up telephone booths.

They brought the Christmas tree back and also the light display from the station to the stadium.

Christmas cocktails: London has its fair share of Christmas treats and cocktails, although I did not enjoy too much this year. The Chocolate Cocktail Club was one place that I did visit, and I had a selection of festive cocktails, including the chocolat reindeer as a cocktail glass filled with a cream and chocolate liquer.

Liberty: The department store has its festive shop windows and Christmas trees.

Oxford Street: The street in London has had the same decorations for the past several years - stars. Where it meets Regent Street has additional lights.

Regent Street: These angels have been bringing the festive joy to the street every Christmas. They are based on the street's original lights.

There are always some nice window displays around here too.

Selfridges: Selfridges this year have gone in collaboration with Disney on the lights and shop windows. They also have a mini party in the store as well. 

Inside the food hall are tributes to Disney.

I loved the shop windows, which each were from a different Disney film.

St. Christopher's Place: The coloured dots were lit up and looked extra festive, and they have added additional floral displays around this popular spot for cafes and restaurants.

Harrods: The department store this year has not done anything special as it had in previous years.

Knightsbridge: The shops have decorated.

Duke of York Square at Sloane Square: Duke of York Square has continued their "Twelve Days of Christmas" decorations.

The memory garden this year was held here instead of Grosvenor Square.

King's Road.

Sloane Square: This year, one of the places to be was the Ralph Lauren cafe. I had a hot chocolate and cookie.

Battersea: Battersea has a lot of decorations and puts on a display projected onto Battersea Power Station.

Inside the power station was decorated.

The Battersea Power Station this year had projections from Apple designed by the public and famous celebrities and artists. It featured Christmas trees. 

Happy holidays to all of my readers.

Last year, I covered the treats in with the Christmas decorations, and you can read the posts here:

• London Festive Treats 2023
• London's Christmas Lights, Decorations, and Treats 2022
• London's Christmas Lights, Decorations, and Treats 2021

Previous London Christmas lights are below:

• London Christmas Displays 2024
• London's Christmas Lights and Decorations 2023
• London's Festive Christmas Treats, 2023
  London's Christmas Lights, Decorations, and Treats 2022
• London's Christmas Lights, Decorations, and Treats 2021
• Where to see London's Christmas Lights and Decorations in 2020
• Where to Buy Christmas-Themed Treats in London (2020)
• Where to see London Christmas lights and decorations (2019 Edition)
• Christmas in London 2018 - Lights and Displays
• Where to see London's Christmas Lights 2017
• London's Christmas Lights 2016
• Christmas Lights and Windows 2015
• London Christmas Lights 2014
• London's Christmas Lights 2013
• London Christmas Lights and Window Displays 2012

Previous London Window displays are below (I've phased these out as they have not been as interesting the past few years and more interest seems to be on the facade of the building as opposed to displays inside the windows):

• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012

Ohio WonderLights is a drive-through Christmas lights display located in central Ohio at Hartford County fairgrounds. The display is set to traditional and modern Christmas music and festive tunes while vehicles drive through a few acres of displays. Over one million LED lights are used to create the display of flashing lights in sync with the music played from your car's stereo. This display has been going for at least two Christmases now, and it was my first visit. 

It was very difficult to get any decent photographs since the cars have to keep moving, but it was good to see the display, and it takes about twenty minutes to drive through it.

Yesterday, my friends and I went on our annual festival afternoon tea visit. This year, we went to Claridge's hotel to enjoy their festive afternoon tea, one of the hotels my friends have been wanting to visit for afternoon tea for years but failed to get in a reservation until this year. The festive afternoon tea had a couple of different options - one with champagne and another with Christmas pudding. The afternoon tea included a selection of sandwiches, a starter of mushroom in puff pastry, scones with jam and cream, and a selection of sweet pastries. 

I had a glass of champagne to start.

A mushroom pate in a puff pastry tart was served next.

We had our selections of sandwiches. The standard menu included salmon, turkey, ham, cucumber, and egg. The vegetarian selection had butternut squash, a celeriac, and a parsnip option.

There were a selection of plain and fruit scones with clotted cream and a cranberry jam.

We also received a birthday cheesecake.

The sweet pastries included a Black Forest Christmas tree, Cranberry and pistachio tart, Clementine and festive spice choux pastry, and a coconut, mango, and passionfruit snowball.

My favourite was the snowball.

Claridge's Christmas tree this year was designed by Daniel Lee for Burberry. The tree is decorated with bows, a Victorian symbol of unity. It also has Scotland symbols and colours.

The festive afternoon tea experience was accompanied by a chorus of carol singers. 

I enjoyed the visit to Claridge's for the festive afternoon tea. The only downside was that the service was a little bit slow for us, although they gave us extra scones and pastries, and we had a small chocolate in a box to take home with us. 

Last month, I visited New York City and got to see the city decorated for the Christmas season at the start of the season. Thankfully, I missed the snow and freezing weather so that I could enjoy the visit without feeling too cold as a lot of time is spent outside when in New York City. The most decorations were around upper Manhattan and Fifth Avenue - Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Saks, the luxuary brands, the Rockerfeller Centre, malls, Radio City, Bryant Park, and a number of other winter markets dotted around New York City.

Fifth Avenue has Saks department store, and there was a light show set to music every fifteen minutes. Down Fifth Avenue are many other shops decorated for the holidays too.  

Saks

Sak's is near The Diamond District, which had some lights. 

Cartier

Decorations on Fifth Avenue

Chanel

Dior

Louis Vuitton

The department stores looked impressive. Bloomingdales had decorations by Burberry with a bow in plaid tan, red, black, and white. On one side of the building were knights in armour in the windows, and they were doing Christmas things like having a dinner party, bringing home gifts, and decorating a tree. The other side of the building had window displays decorated like train carriages with the background moving to winter scenery and items for sale in each carriage room.

Macy's, known for the Thanksgiving Day Parade, is also known for its displays. The shop is located on 34th street, which is based on "Miracle on 34th Street". On one side of the building was Thanksgiving with the turkey, and the other featured a Santa. The window displays features several interactive games and karaoke. It was the 99th year for the parade, which featured a new Minnie Mouse balloon.

Some of the buildings in the city were also lit up.

Of course, Thanksgiving cupcakes features a lot as the city rang in for Christmas and the start of the festive season.

Radio City also looks festive with the tree and candy canes across the street.

Near the financial district, the Tin Building looked festive.

New York City also has a few Christmas markets, such as Union Square Park and Bryant Park. Below is Union Square Park, which I was able see without large crowds.

Bryant Park was busy, so it was hard to see the markets.

There were other decorations as well, such as outside Grand Central Station.

The Rockerfeller Centre is known for its decorations and famous Christmas tree. The Christmas tree isn't lit until the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, so I did not get to see it lit up.

I stayed at Lotte Palace, which has a beautiful Christmas tree and a little courtyard with drinks. Inside, they had a lit-up and decorated gingerbread version of the hotel.

New York is very festive over the Christmas season with decorations and shows, such as the Rockettes. The city does not have Christmas lights hung up like in London; the decorations are more commercial and tied to the businesses or buildings themselves. 

My friends and I have started an annual tradition to visit a Christmas market, and the only time that we were all free was in the middle of November. It was a little bit early for Christmas markets in mid-November, but we discovered that Birmingham's was on and just kicked off that weeknd. So off to Birmingham we went overnight. Last year, we went to Winchester and the market was cancelled due to high winds and rain. This time, we were at threat of nasty weather, but it happened the day before. We actually did not drink because one of my friends got an infection and was on antibiotics. Still, we made the most of it and did some touristy things as well as see the Christmas market.

The Birmingham Christmas market is known as the Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market after the German city. The markets themselves were primarily drinking spots in the square, but there were some stalls of food and other items down the High Street and next to the cathedral, but there was not a lot for sale in terms of gifts. However, it may have been a little bit too early. I was hoping to visit again, but I simply ran out of time before it finishes.

We had a walk around the canals and the town and enjoyed the lights and decorations.

The main market is on the town square outside the museum. However, it is drink and food in this area.

The High Street actually has some gifts and food items for sale.

Outside the cathedral has more choices for food and a larger area for gifts. The main square was too busy and mainly for drinking.

I had a pizza.

There was not a large selection of gifts. I did not see anything to buy, but my friends bought some crystals and stones.

I would have bought these German marshmallow desserts that you find at almost every Christmas market, but we ran out of time and did not get to go back. Our feet were sore from walking.

I had a hot chocolate and a mulled apple juice.

I did also have a chocolate-covered chili with dark chocolate, and it was good. 

There is a nativity scene in the main square.

One of the other things I wanted to get back to Birmingham for was to see the Reindeer trail. I saw two of the reindeer and was near all of the others, but we did not get to do it (or see more) as we ran out of time. 

The next morning, I was up early and had a chai latte.

My friend wanted to go to Bill's (a restaurant chain). There was a long queue to get in and an even longer time to get our food. I am never very impressed with this restaurant, but the breakfast was ok. As soon as we ate, we had to go to the station and get the train back to London.

I'm gutted that I didn't get to spend a little bit longer in Birmingham and that I did not get to go back before the big day. I suppose I can always go next year. I will leave with a couple of photos of artwork that I saw in Birmingham.

"The Lovley People" - Aaron Bird

"Giant Red Desktop Lamp" - Lucy Holmes

At the beginning of the month, I visited Ohio to see my parents and to relax. The festive season was just starting, and they had a cold start to the month of December. I did not visit for too many days, but it was enough to enjoy some time with them and to have a couple of days out. On one of the days, we went to the Amish country, and the landscape looked beautiful in the snow.

The snow came the first day I arrived, and it did not get above freezing, so the snow lingered. Below are some photographs taken in the Amish Country.

While in the Amish Country, we went to The Jam Smucker Company outlet store. The outlet store will be closing in January. We got some Christmas gifts here and had a browse around. There is also some information about the history of the company, which is noted for its jams and jellies and other brands, such as peanut butters, coffees, and pet food.

We also went to a hardware store on the way back and looked for more Christmas gifts, and we also went into a chocolate store and a large gift shop and grocery store before heading our way back home.

The sunsets are beautiful in this part of the world, and it looked even more magical with the snow.

I also had a couple of festive drinks before watching the new "Wicked" movie in the cinema.

On the way from the airport, we had a quick stop at Newark court house to see the wonderful Christmas lights. It was just getting dark when we drove through.

I also had a hot chocolate with a "Peeps" Christmas tree. "Peeps" are marshmallows covered with sugar, and they do different shapes for the season.

I enjoyed my visit to Ohio, although it was a fleeting trip as I had spent almost a week in New York City before that.

On Friday evening, I went to Chelsea Winter Illuminations. This is the first illuminated light trail that Royal Hospital Chelsea have put on. The event takes place in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea's event space, which is the same place that the famous flower show is held every May. I decided to visit after work as I love to do a light trail at this time of the year, and this was easy to access.

I was impressed with the amount of lights and the interactive aspects of the trail. Each visitor was welcomed to the Chelsea Winter Illuminations by an illuminated archway.

An avenue of trees was lit with glowing orbs and pulsating colours. A button could be pressed to change the display colours.

The trail led through to a bar at the end to offer visitors a selection of hot drinks, and it continued through illuminated trees with lit-up reindeer.

Visitors could "choose" which illumination to walk over - naughty or nice. The trail went the same way.

The trail came to a light show set to music, and the colours and patterns changed along with the music.

The trail led through an illuminated tunnel.

Afterwards, there was some artwork illuminated by students. Various doors were painted or decorated with a Christmas theme.

A large Christmas tree constantly changed colour and pattern.

And the trail continued through an illuminated walkway with glowing "flowers" on both sides.

This led to the mid-way point where visitors could enjoy food or drink. There was a giant bauble to get photographs inside.

A group of mushrooms and butterflies and another set of interactive light trees were available to see and interact with. The colours changed when the buttons were pressed.

A warm fire was provided for heating up marshmallows.

The trail continued through another archway, and this one was shaped triangular.

Mistletoe hung over a bench, and the bench had a statue on it.

Next up was a spectacular sea of lights set to music with the colours fading, changing, and evolving repeatedly set to audio. This was a beautiful part of the trail.

On the other side was a column of lights which could be tapped to switch the colour.

The trail then led back toward the entrance with a projection of snowflakes.

There were games, rides, food, drink, and a small Christmas village at the end. There were many options, and visitors could stay for a little bit longer. 

The Chelsea Winter Illuminations is open to visit for a fee until the 28th of December.

The Connaught hotel in Mayfair hosts an outdoor Christmas tree decorated and designed by an artist every year for the past decade now. This year, the tree has been designed by Urs Fischer, an artist born in Switzerland. The Nordmann Fir tree from Denmark is decorated with illuminated baubles with a variety of different faces (ages, genders, races), and these faces act as a community of joy to celebrate the festive season. The design was inspired by the artist's work "Installation People".

Previous Connaught Christmas trees that I covered on my blog are below: