So this Christmas did not go how I initially wanted it to go or had planned, but with the global pandemic and all, it’s been the best it could be. Unless you have been living under a rock for well over a year now, Covid-19 has taken over the world and has changed a lot of our lives. We’ve gone through quite a lot and have experienced things we would never of expected to. From a national lockdown to 2020 ending in Tiers (pardon the joke, I had too), from toilet roll going almost extinct and day time drinking became a normal thing; there’s no more “It’s 5pm somewhere” now “why the f*** not?!”. Countless hours on zoom and TikTok our generation has surely changed. I’ve almost forgot what it feels like to be surrounded by a crowd of people at a gig or in a bar/club, which is sad. And with Covid Christmas markets were cancelled, including Winter Wonderland.
Around Christmas me and my boyfriend normally spend our weekends going through our winter ‘check-list’ and with Winter Wonderland being closed that had to be scratched off. We still managed to do a few things though:
- Christmas at Kew Gardens
- Christmas lights throughout London
- Covent Garden
- Leicester Square
- Trafalgar Square
- Piccadily Circus
- Carnaby Street
- Harrods
Christmas at Kew Gardens
We had booked this in July/August as soon as it got released as tickets always sell out quite quickly, obviously with covid and the ever changing regulations we weren’t 100% sure if it would go ahead, but luckily we got to go just in time! We went on the Friday before the Saturday when London went into Tier 4 which meant Botanical Gardens (e.g. Kew Gardens) would close.
Some things were the same as the year before (just as nice & magical!) but there were some new features too! It was probably the best i’ve seen (Was my third time), it took us an hour and a half to walk around the trail, we only stopped a couple times to get some hot chocolate and mulled wine.
Carnaby street
This is the fourth year me and graham have gone to Carnaby street at Christmas and if I’m totally honest, it was my least favourite display compared to the previous years’ ones. This years theme was ‘Choose Love’ and was a very basic display of pink/purple signs with positive affirmations on them.
Covent Garden/Leicester Square/Trafalgar Square/Piccadily Circus
These had the same displays they normally have but nevertheless was still nice to walk around and see them all again.
Thank you for reading this post! I hope you have all had a good Christmas or the best you could of had considering the pandemic.
Stay safe 🙂 x
Jess Clare 