Christmas preparations in London start the next day after Halloween. These preparations include Christmas events, streets light installations, window’s display for shopping malls and stores. However, these preparations do not include stores that do not celebrate Christmas like Chinatown or Turkish shops, making this a unique experience while walking the streets of London.
One of the best Christmas events this season was the Magical Lantern Festival held at Chiswick House and Gardens. I found this event while browsing Facebook and the photographs were amazing. Therefore, I booked our tickets by beginning of November, as I loved to go to these types of events with my husband.
The street lights installations take several weeks to complete, as they covered many miles of display. These designs are different and very intricate every year, making of this a very lengthy operation. The lights installations are usually sponsor by either a film or a charity, as they are photograph by everyone that visits London during winter it the perfect advertisement space. After the installation is completed, the next stage is the switch-on event with every street having its own event.
On 7th November 2017 at 5pm, the switching-on event of Oxford Street Christmas Lights took place. These lights were sponsored by NSPCC (children charity) and SKY (network television) which depicted an advent calendar, starts and glitter balls. The event was run by Capital Breakfast’s Roman Kemp and Vick Hope (radio presenters) with music from Matt Terry, 5 Before Midnight and the cast of Five Guys Named Moe (West End production). The event finished with Rita Ora (singer) switching the lights.
On 9th November 2017 at 5.30pm, the switching-on event of the Carnaby Christmas Lights took place. These lights depicted carnival theme and were depicted by funky lights, bold colour and tropical vibes. The event had music by DJ Norman Jay MBE.
On 16th November 2017 at 4pm., the switching-on event of the Regent Street Christmas Lights took place. These lights celebrated the spirit of Christmas by paying tribute to the festive heritage of the shopping district. The display depicted large-scale spirits glows above Regent Street and its surrounding street. The event was celebrated by closing the street and was hosted by Jamie Theakston and Emma Bunton (radio presenters) with performance of Clean Bandit, Paloma Faith, Michael Ball and Alfie Boe.
On 2nd December 2017 at 4pm, we made our way to Chiswick House in West London. We made our way by car, as this is the best to go, however, the challenge was parking. After we found the house, we started searching around the building to find a parking spot. After parking, we made our way to Chiswick House where the gardens were transformed with spectacular handmade lanterns in all shapes and forms. The lanterns covered a variety of themes from the amazing entrance depicting London landscape to the spectacular Chinese Song Dynasty temple including the dragon. The experience was amazing and is highly recommended; however, it is a long walk and the weather needs to be taken into consideration before attempting the trip.
The switching-on events are always very impressive and full of energy with lots of things to do; however, the timing is always difficult to get as it is during the middle of the day. The best time to see the lights is around 5pm when the sky turns dark and it is perfect time for photographs, as the details of the light can be seen perfectly. However, the best time to photograph the markets and the buildings that are not decorated is before the sunset to that you could see the streets. Therefore, in order to take the best photographs of the streets it took me three days to cover the main lights.
On 11th December 2017, I had a team’s lunch in Soho and after an amazing Turkish lunch, I decided to walk towards Leicester Square to see the Christmas lights. In the way towards Leicester Square, I had to go through Wardour Street next to Chinatown and at the end of the street I turned around to take a photograph of the Chinese arch. However, on that photograph I realised that Chinatown did not have a single Christmas light and the only lights were on the windows of an English Pub and then I realised that only Christian establishments were decorated.
I kept walking until I reached Leicester Square but it was around 3pm and I realised that the lights would not be depicted nice in the photograph. I walked towards Piccadilly Circus and figured out that in order to take those pictures it needed to be here after 5pm and I could not wait 2 hours without doing anything so I planned to return another day.
On 12th December 2017, I had an all-day workshop at Tottenham Street and after that I decided to take the underground towards Leicester Square to take those amazing Christmas lights. I arrived at Leicester Square around 5pm, the perfect time to take those allusive night photographs. I started walking towards Leicester Square and started taking photographs. In my walk, I took photographs at Coventry Street, then at Piccadilly Circus took photographs of Saint James’s Street, Piccadilly Circus and Regent Street. After the photographs, I took the underground back home.
On 15th December 2017, I had my last team’s lunch in Charlotte Street near the university and after 5pm I took the bus towards Oxford Circus to complete my set of photographs. After leaving the bus, I took photographs of Oxford Street from the middle walkabout and continued walking towards Oxford Circus where I took photographs from both sides of Oxford Street and then Regent Street. I continued walking until I reached Carnaby Street. At Regent Street, I found out amazing window’s display from various shops that I loved like Hamleys (toy store), H&M and Piccadilly Emporium. After finished with my photographs, I returned home.
I loved the London Christmas lights and I highly recommended that if you have the choice come in December and enjoyed the ambience as during this season there are many things to do and every shop looks much nicer as everything sparkles.
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