Results tagged “Christmas”

Covent Garden has become one of the best places in London for Christmas decorations, and this year did not disappoint. In fact, I've created a post to highlight Covent Garden at Christmas because there is so much to see here. This year, Covent Garden has brought a couple of new experiences: a little wonderland of decorated Christmas trees, a festive ice rink, and a gingerbread model of Covent Garden. Of course, there are the usual restaurants, cafes, shops, and opera house that make Covent Garden a great place to visit.

Visitors may remember last year's post. Last year's Covent Garden decorations are lights can be found here: Christmas in London 2018 - Lights and Displays. This year, the festive Christmas trees are gathered on the northern end of the market. Last year, Covent Garden had a decorated vintage car here. In addition to the Christmas trees, there are several wagons decorated and a swing decorated with pine and red flowers.

I loved the decorated trees, and each one was decorated by a business located in Covent Garden.

Inside the market is a model of the Covent Garden market made of gingerbread. The gingerbread Covent Garden was created by biscuit company Biscuiteers (I've previously covered them here: Queen's 90th Birthday @ Biscuiteers). The model is beautiful and captures Covent Garden well and beautiful decorated for Christmas.

As the previous few years, the mistletoe berry Christmas lights have been placed around the main hall in Covent Garden, pictured below.

Another treat this year is brought to us by Tiffany & Co. Visitors to Covent Garden can ice skate on the small ice skating rink here and enjoy a festive setting with the Tiffany & Co perfume as the centrepiece.

Inside the market hall is another Christmas display that is perfect for photographs; this is the usual space dedicated to highlighting seasonal decorations and is located on the western side of the market hall.

On the market square (sotuhern side) is the Ivy Grill restaurant, and they decorate every year. This year, they have gone for the traditional red and green decorations with nearly life-sized nutcracker statues. These were very popular with people wanting photographs.

As every year, the large Christmas tree has been put up at Covent Garden piazza, amongst the street performers. The tree is positioned to appear as if it is in a large wooden planter, tied with a bow, keeping it consistent with the previous years. However, the other large oranment, the giant silver reindeer, has not made an appearance this year as the spot that it usually occupies is taken over by Tiffany & Co.

This part of London is looking very festive indeed! If you wish to see what it looked like in previous years, see below:

Christmas in London 2018 - Lights and Displays
Where to See London's Christmas Lights 2017
Lego "Let's Build Xmas" in Covent Garden
London's Christmas Lights 2016: A Trail
Where to See Christmas Lights in London
Christmas Mistletoe in Covent Garden
Lego Santa Express in Covent Garden
London's Christmas Lights 2014
Covent Garden's New Shiny Reindeer
Santa and Reindeer Lego for Christmas in Covent Garden
Covent Garden's Christmas Lego Snow Globe
Lego Advent Calendar in Covent Garden
London Christmas Lights 2012 and Window Displays

Last week, I headed over to Peggy Porschen Bakery between Victoria and Sloane Square to check out their winter and Christmas goodies this year. Peggy Porschen is one of the most photographed locations in London due to its pretty pink storefront and creative cupcakes, cakes, and hot drinks. This year, they brought back some old favourites and included some new treats into the mix, such as peppermint cupcakes with designs of polar bears, penguins, and snowflakes. Readers of my blog may remember last year's post when I visited them for the first time: A Christmas Visit to Peggy Porschen Bakery.

The shop front this year was minimal on the florals but included some white twigs, snowflake lights, and a large polar bear, similar to the design on their cupcakes this Christmas.

I enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate with a lot of marshmallows and a peppermint cupcake.

The polar bears and penguins really look adorable, and the cupcakes were good. The cost for the goodies is not cheap, and visitors pay for the design and the seating in the trendy cafe. 

More posts about Peggy Porschen on this blog are below:

Summer at Peggy Porschen Cafe King's Road
Easter at the New Peggy Porschen Cafe, King's Road
February/March Heart and Floral Designs at London Shops
A Christmas Visit to Peggy Porschen Bakery

Over the past few years, The Connaught hotel has used an artist to design their Christmas tree, which illuminates Mount Street. The Connaught hotel's Christmas tree this year is designed by Irish abstract painter Sean Scully. It is a Christmas tree designed with four bold block colours in an abstract manner. It takes over 25,000 light bulbs to bring this Christmas tree artwork to life. Scully said of the tree: "It's a Suprematist Christmas tree wearing a starry magician's hat" (1).

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

• 2018 Michael Craig-Martin
• 2017 Tracey Emin
• 2016 Damien Hirst
• 2015 Antony Gormley

The Christmas tree will be on display until early January. 

1) Sean Scully's Artful Christmas Tree Lights Up the Connaught in London. https://www.galeriemagazine.com/sean-scully-christmas-tree-connaught/ [Galerie Magazine]. 5 December, 2019.

I visited Kingston Lacy, a National Trust property located in Dorset, with a group of friends this past weekend. Kingston Lacy is one of the National Trust properties in the southwest that are decorated for Christmas and have a winter light trail. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember my first visit to Kingston Lacy in early June (An Afternoon at Kingston Lacy (Dorset, England)) or my last post about the Christmas decorations at the house Christmas at Kingston Lacy). The property have been including a winter light trail for the past few years now, and some of my friends have been a couple of times. They said that it was even bigger and better this year.

The light installations this year were inspired by members of the Bankes family who lived at Kingston Lacy house. The lights include an interactive experience where visitors can push a button to light up trees/bushes, and one part of the trail features changing colours of trees set to a soundscape. Japanese lanterns are located in the Acer Glade, and the reds, oranges, and yellows lit up to the obelisk are inspired from desert sun in Egypt.

The colours were fascinating with the above tree-lined walkway set to a soundscape and changing colours.

A bridge was lit up, and along the trees and dotted around this part of the trail were miniature doors.

The colours were very pretty, as you can see in the above photograph.

The winter illuminations take approximately half an hour to walk around, and they are in place until 5th January (excluding Christmas Day and Christmas Eve). 

Last weekend, I visited Kingston Lacy with a group of friends in order to see the house decorated for the holidays and to walk the winter lights trail at the property. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember my first visit to Kingston Lacy in early June: An Afternoon at Kingston Lacy (Dorset, England). The house was decorated for an Edwardian Christmas that former owner Henrietta Bankes and her children would have known, and it includes inspirations from their lists, letters, and cards.

Each of the rooms had a tree, and only the first floor was open with the level above closed off. One of the rooms contained games and toys that would have been popular for Christmas in the Edwardian period, and this was busy with families participating in the games and toys in front of a large Christmas tree.

However, before we went into the house, we checked out the shop and had a hot chocolate. I loved the decorations around the shop.

When inside the house, we were greeted with a red and gold tree inside the main entrance hall and the fireplace a few steps up decorated in the same colour scheme.

Up the stairs were two more trees, this time decorated in silver. And at the top of the stairs, the stairwell to the top floor was closed off with wrapped gifts and more red and gold decorations.

The main room contained a large Christmas tree and the games.

This led into another room with its own Christmas tree.

The dining room had a pile of boxes on the table and a blue and gold tree. The table contained a couple of gifts from the family along with letters that they wrote about the gifts for Christmas.

The small room had a smaller tree made with sliced oranges.

Seeing Kingston Lacy at Christmas was a unique experience and very different from the first visit in June.

Unfortunately, all of the house tours have been booked, but you can chance turning up on the day. The house and winter lights trail is free to visit for National Trust members.

To ease into the holidays, I recommend a visit to see the play "White Christmas" at the Dominion Theatre. Last week, I made a trip to watch the musical as it is now in the West End after having been successful in Leicester last year. The musical has been touring for many years now, and is now in Londonuntil 4th January. Of course, the story and music comes from the 1954 film by the same name, popular for the Irving Berlin music and song "White Christmas" and numerous other songs and actors Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney (amongst others).

I saw the film "White Christmas" a few years ago but could not remember the story. However, it's the music we are interested in with favourite songs such as "White Christmas" and "Snow". If you have not seen it yet, you have until 4th January, and it is a feel-good and very Christmassy story. I have no doubt you will leave smiling.

Over the holiday season, Longleat House puts on its annual and popular Longleat Festival of Lights event and decorates for Christmas. Longleat House itself has been decorated for Christmas with seven Christmas trees in various rooms, including a massive 20-foot tree in the Great Hall. The Christmas decoration theme is the "Roaring 1920s". Only the ground floor of Longleat House is opened to visitors during Christmas. Unfortunately, photographs were not allowed inside the house.

In addition to Longleat House's rooms being decorated for Christmas, the outside courtyard has also been decorated with a large tree. The Christmas tree here has a sound and light show projected onto it, synchronised with music and different patterns to favourite Christmas songs.

In addition to the Christmas decorations and lights, check out my post about the Winter Safari and Festival of Light at Longleat.

U.S.-based Christmas-themed cocktail bar "Miracle" has come to London as a special pop-up at Henrietta Hotel in Covent Garden for the second year in a row. They are serving up festive drinks in holiday glassware with an abundance of nostalgic 1970s-decade Christmas decor throughout the bar. Viontage Christmas cards, illustrations, photographs, gardlands, tinsel, lights, and ornaments are all on display. Some of the seats contain a warm fur blanket to complete the cozy winter feeling, and classic Christmas songs were being played. Anyone who visits will immediately be transported to the Christmas of their childhood.

I went along recently to Miracle to enjoy the Christmas atmosphere after I enjoyed my visit last year, which I posted about here: Christmas Cocktails @ Miracle at Henrietta

This year, they had a couple of new cocktails with a few of the old favourites. The SanTaRex comes in a T.Rex with Christmas hat glass, and it is a cocktail blended with Whisky, sherry, apple cider, lemon juice, hard cider, and apple bitters. Yippee Ki Yay Mother F*****r! is served in a glass shaped like Santa's trousers and boots and is made of different types of rum, orgeat, and pineapple. Gingerbread Flip comes in a festive glass and is made of Whiskey, gingerbread syrup, tiki bitters, egg, and ginger cookie crumbs.

My favourite cocktail of the three that I tried was the Yippee Ki Yay Mother F*****r! In addition to cocktails, the venue also serves small snacks to help absorb the cocktails, which do dangerously go to your head. Like last year, Miracle pop-up bar helped to get me in the Christmas mood.

Each year, Carnaby Street in London hangs new Christmas lights with last year's popular piece being a tribute to musician Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" song and a display of props used in the film that came out last year. Carnaby's lights are the only lights in London that change each year, although Seven Dials seem to be changing their lights every year now for the past three or four years, but these are not nearly on the same scale as Carnaby Street. This year, Carnaby Street has gone with an environmental theme: One Ocean, One Planet. This theme, dubbed Project Zero, is about protecting the planet's oceans.

Over 1,500 plastic bottles and old fishing nets have been used in this year's Christmas lights in Carnaby Street. The seascape features a sea turtle, dolphin, whale, seahorses, coral, starfish, a shoal of fish, seaweed, and much more.

In addition to keeping with the sea theme, many illuminated jellyfish have been hung on the side streets around Carnaby Street.

Ganton Street's giant plug artwork has its own sea creature, albiet a fictional one.

Also, the lightbulb art is still hanging proud down by Kingley Court. This isn't a Christmas installation, however. These lights are displayed all year.

To see previous Carnaby Street Christmas lights in my blog, see the below posts:

• Carnaby Street Christmas Lights Celebrate Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody"
• Carnaby Christmas Carnival
• Carnaby Christmas Revolution
• Carnaby Christmas Party
• Robins
• Santa
• Rolling Stones (rock and roll)

"Magical birds and festive feathers" is the theme of the Christmas decorations at Leeds Castle this year, and that is not all that visitors can find at Leeds Castle for the Christmas season. A Christmas market is also on the lawn in front of the castle, and it has several wooden buildings where visitors can buy gifts, food, drink, listen to live music, and use the fairground rides. The castle's rooms are decorated and can be seen until January 1st, but the Christmas market is only on weekends until the 15th of December.

Along with the "birds and feathers" theme, younger visitors to the castle can count the number of birds in each room after admiring the decorations, such as a group of blackbirds escaping from a pie or a group of owls outside bird cages. There are also robins and bird feathers adorning the boquets of flowers or creating wreaths.

The Christmas market sold treats, such as cupcakes and samples of items to try and then buy as gifts. I also had a hot chocolate, which came with a cute gingerbread man and a candy cane.

The walk back to the car was sunny with these golden leaves clinging onto the trees and nice views of the castle from the other side of the lake.

When I arrived, there was a layer of frost in the little shaded enclosure on both sides of the stream going into the parkland. It was a cold morning, and the frost failed to melt even though it was past 11:00 in the morning.

Have you ever been to Leeds Castle at Christmas?

The gin advent calendar from Costco comes with 24 small bottles of different brands of gin and flavoured gin. This is the perfect way to try a variety of different brands of gin and to find some new favourites. Note that you can only be a member of Costco in order to purchase this advent calendar. I had a gin advent calendar last year (Flavoured Gin Advent Cracker Calendar) and found some clear new favourites, such as Whitley Neill Quince Gin, Sweet Potato Spirit Co. gin, The English Drinks Company gin, and Poetic Licence Fireside Gin.

Now that it is December first, today is the day to open up the advent calendars. The box that the gin came in is pictured below.

• Edinburgh Gin's Plum & Vanilla Liqueur
• Hendrick's Gin
• Hall & Bramley Rhubarb & Ginger Gin
• Beefeater Pink London Dry Gin

• Sipsmith London Dry Gin
• Malfy Con Arancia (Blood Orange) Gin
• The Lakes Original Gin
• What Lies Beneath Honey Liqueur

J.J Whitley Violet Gin

Martin Millers Gin

Liverpool Organic Rose Petal Gin

Sipsmith Lemon Drizzle Gin

• Greenalls Wild Berry Gin
• Peaky Blinder Spiced Dry Gin
• Edingurgh Gin's Pomegranate & Rose Liqueur
• Aber Falls Welsh Orange Marmalade Gin

• Hall & Bramley Elderflower Gin
• Sipsmith Sloe Gin
• Malfy Con Limone Gin
• J.J Whitley Pink Cherry Gin

• Warner Edwards Dry Gin
• The Lakes Sloe Gin Liqueur
• Chase GB Gin
• Edinburgh Gin's Christmas Gin

Apsley House was built at the end of the 1700s by Lord Apsley and is a Grade I-listed building now owned by English Heritage. The mansion passed into the 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, who became famous for finally defeating Napoleon. Out of the fame, the duke became very famous and wealthy and also became involved with politics/a prime minister. The house includes a very good collection of paintings commissioned by the duke, given by friends and other leaders, or discovered/retained by enemies. In addition to paintings, other gifts were given by other country leaders as gratitude for defeating Napoleon. 

While Apsley House is still a current home of the ancestors of the Duke of Wellington, eleven of the rooms are open for the museum and display many of the gifts and paintings. 

The Duke of Wellington had built onto the original house through the years, and the original dining room was an extension as well as the new and larger dining room (known as Waterloo Gallery) to accommodate over eighty guests and the floor below. The new dining room was used yearly for several years in the mid-1800s to host very large parties. The Waterloo Gallery was inspired by Versailles Palace and the wall of mirrors. The windows have shutters for which mirrors are hung.

The adjoining room, a withdrawing room, is a more intimate space and contains the oldest foot-pedal piano in the world. 

Another piece that lives in the house in the grand staircase is a monumental statue of Napoleon, which was inspired to look like a Greek god. The classical nude statue depicted a classic physique and Napoleon's face, and he was so embarrassed by it that he had it banned from display. The Duke of Wellington also had a few paintings of Napoleon and some items that he used to own; perhaps he was inspired by Napoleon's strategy.

Over the Christmas season, the rooms are decorated with Christmas decorations and Christmas trees, cards, and garlands to create a festive atmosphere. At the moment, they are hosting carol singing in the house. 

I actually found the house to be interesting, and the audio guide helped me to learn about the house and the collections of artwork. I'd recommend a visit. It took me just over two hours to complete the tour. You can also combine this with the other Duke of Wellington monument across the road (Wellington Arch), which is also an English Heritgage property. I'd previously visited this in February of this year, so you can read more about it here: A Visit to Wellington Arch, London. 

Wembley Park hosted their first ever immersive winter lights trail this year, which is being described as both a light trail and a Christmas trail with giant Christmas decorations. Tonight was the first night of the event with the "light switch on" taking place with a live band, carol singing, and people dressed as elves; the event will be in place until 3 January, adding a spark of colour to the shorter and darker days.

There are plenty of photograph and selfie opportunities amongst the light installations, and a few of the installations are immersive.  Visitors also have a choice of station where the light installations are placed between with a 15-minute walk between the two stations: Wembley Park and Wembley Stadium. There are plenty of places to grab a bite to eat or drink or to do a little bit of shopping. Fortunately, all of the light installations were working on opening night, so I managed to photograph them.

Shadow Wall: Jason Bruges

Shadows are created from people who walk by the walls of the underpass (Royal Route), leaving an imprint into the side of the wall made of light. Visitors created unique shapes by moving and posing. The light installation mimics those who walk by, imprinting their shape onto the wall.

The Hopeful Tree: Elyne Legarnisson

This is London's tallest LED Christmas tree towering over the crowds at Wembley Park. It is lit with 100,000 low-energy bulbs and is the centrepiece of the event. Visitors can admire it from a distance or walk through it. The tree changes colour and pattern continuously.

Royal Wave: Jason Bruges

This digital Mexican wave on the underpass of Royal Route was created using portraits of people who live in the community. The artwork shifts with movement of the viewer. Its placement and subject is perfect for the venue as the Mexican wave is performed by crowds in stadiums, such as the one here at Wembley.

Murmuration of Hopes: Elyne Legarnisson

LED banners and illuminated trees line the walkway through Wembley Park. The light banners twinkle, mimicking birds in flight. There are two sections of this installation on both main walkways.

Saturation Surge: Maser

This is not a light installation and is a permanent installation here at Wembley, but it has been included in the list as I suppose it is a work of art and can brighten up the gloomy wintery days. The artwork is created with colourful geometric shapes by street artist Maser from Ireland. 

Love Spot

This installation is simply for the purpose of photographs. The lit-up heart has mistletoe hanging from it, encouraging couples to visit it for a photograph or a kiss.

Illumaphonium: Halos: Michael Davis

This immersive installation allows the viewer to become a part of the work by creating soundscapes and light display from the lights using their hands.

Star Box

Star Box premiered last year for the Christmas season and encourages visitors to step inside and to get their photographs with the giant gold gift box.

Sonic Runway: Rob Jensen and Warren Trezevant

One of the highlights of Winterfest Wembley is this 130m tunnel of lights, which is making the European debut here at Wembley Park after Nevada's Burning Man Festival. The rings of lights are constantly moving and creating different patterns and colours set to music in a multi-sensory installation that is certainly a crowd-pleaser.

Crossover: miriamandtom

This artwork is a pattern of geometric colour transforming Bobby Moore Bridge near Wembley Park station. The top of the bridge and walls in the underpass are bright with shapes of complementary colour.

Also lit up was the star of Wembley itself, the stadium with its massive arches that can be seen from miles away. The arches were covered in a rainbow of colour for the evening. 

To see the mixture of interactive artwork and Christmas decorations and get photographs, visit Wembley Park before January 3rd. The area now has quite a lot of shops and restaurants to visit, though I found the shopping area not sign-posted well when I visited a few weeks ago to visit the cinema and get a bite to eat, though it was easy to just find the two main walkways with the light installations; I didn't venture into any of the shops. This area of London seems to be transforming a lot.

Waddesdon Manor is a property managed by the National Trust in Buckinghamshire, England. At this time of the year and throughout the festive season, the staff at Waddesdon Manor decorate the house and grounds. I visited Waddesdon Manor with friends this weekend on its opening day. The Christmas festivities here include two illuminated trails through the woods, several of the rooms in the house decorated for Christmas and open to the public (which requires an additional fee and booking well in advance), and a Christmas market. Members of the National Trust can visit the grounds for free, but the house is only accessible via timed tickets purchased in advance at an extra cost.

Each year, Waddesdon Manor house is decorated to a theme. This year's theme for the decorated rooms at Waddesdon Manor is festive music. Each of the rooms (or each area in the house) was decorated based on the inspiration from a festive song, such as "O' Christmas Tree", "The Nutcracker", or "The Twelve Days of Christmas". The Rothchilds (the very wealthy family who lived in Waddesdon Manor from the late 1800s until the end of the 1950s) enjoyed music and would have had live music performed during the house parties at the weekends. 

"O Christmas Tree": This is a traditional German song about the fir tree as a sturdy and faithful tree. The tree became one of the symbols of the season in the 1800s after Queen Charlotte introduced the tradition and then later when Queen Victoria was pictured with one. The Christmas tree is relatively a new tradition in the United Kingdom.

"Three Kings of Orient (We Three Kings)": This room was decorated inspired by the three magi who went traveling across the desert in order to find the hold baby and bring him gifts. A large camel stands in a corner, and king-related ornaments (with animals such as elephants and camels) on placed on the trees. This song was written in the mid-1800s and is still a popular song for the season.

"While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks": This song describes how the holy baby news reached the ordinary people, such as the shepherds who tended to their flocks of sheep. The room and tree is decorated with sheep, stars, staffs, and angel's wings. I thought that the sheep looked very cute.

Upstairs, a few more rooms were decorated.

"The Twelve Days of Christmas": This song from the 1700s is probably of French origin and was a memory game for children. The Twelve Days is about the traditional twelve days when the festivities lasted for twelve days and the Twelfth Night, the largest celebration. This was widely celebrated in place of Christmas. The tree included ornaments for the items in the song, including the dancing ladies, swans, geese, pipers, and maids.  

"I Saw Three Ships": The song "I Saw Three Ships" was a traditional traveling folk song (possibly sung by sailors); it was not a holiday song at all. The song dated from the middle ages but then became a festive song with some symbolism and word changes. The centrepieces on the table are of three porcelain ships that would hold pot-pouri, and the placemats and tree ornaments include paper ships and ship wheels.

"The Nutcracker": "The Nutcracker" ballet has become a festive tradition due to the story. The story is about a young girl's toy nutcracker that comes to life at night. The child-like wonder evokes a festive mood, so it is often now used as a symbol of the holidays. The room is decorated with nutcrackers on the fireplace and ballet shoes as a centrepiece of the table.

Christmas Hits: This area, which descends some stairs, is dedicated to the number one songs during the week of Christmas. Many of them are not festive songs.

"The Little Drummer Boy": This tune originated in the 1940s and is a story about a little boy with a drum and his gift of music to the baby. The song has been recorded by a lot of artists.

"We Wish you a Merry Christmas": This song originated as a carol sung by groups who would go around asking for donations. One of the Christmas messages is about giving to the poor or needy in the community. The room is decorated with festive items, such as Christmas pudding and games, treats, and crackers.

Classics Christmas: The room across the hall represented classical Christmas music, symbolising the importance of music to the family.

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer": This is a very recent song about the misfit reindeer who finally gets accepted because of what he can do when people start to realise how important he is that he is different. It is based on a children's book and a film that was launched at the same time. Inside the small room is the title character.

"White Christmas": Written in the late 1800s, this song is now one of the most famous (if not the most famous) Christmas songs. It became even more famous when Bing Crosby sang it in the 1940s to troops in France. The room is decorated as a child's room with ice blue decorations.

After the visit to the house to look at the rooms, we checked out the lights.

This illumination was located in the stables at the bottom of the hill, and the orbs of light changed colour and moved to music.

Waddesdon Manor had a light show projected onto it, which was also set to music.

Two rows of Christmas market stalls were available to browse in front of the manor house, and some of the lights here were projected onto the trees or made from wine bottles.

The Illuminated Winter Woodland Trail was a circular walk with many smaller displays inside, such as the one set to music below with orbs that changed colour and pulsed with the music.

Some of the lights twinkled, looking like a million fireflies, due to disco balls rotating with light, high up in the trees.

One tree had fiber-optic lighting dangling down from the branches and in a pool below.

One of the other light attractions included smoke stacks where visitors could press a colour button for the smoke to turn a different colour.

Another light show was set to music from "The Nutcracker" with patterns created in light and shadow and of different colour.

The real treat was the projection onto Waddesdon Manor.

We didn't have time to walk around the Christmas market, which looked like it was selling some really good and different products at a quick glance of some stalls, and we also ran out of time to walk the second illuminated trail, which had some lanterns and a few additional light projections. (The main trail was the one near the aviary, which we did walk.) 

I visited on opening day for the festive attractions, and the venue was very busy and actually too busy for my liking really as it was difficult to look around properly, and we had to wait awhile at times. This is certainly one of the most popular festive National Trust places, so it must be one of the better ones or most people just want to start to think about the holidays to get other things off of their minds. 

Yesterday was January 6, and that day (also known as Ephiphany) marks the official end of the Christmas season and the day where all Christmas decorations should be taken down or left up all year to prevent bad omens. I celebrated the end to the season by going to Bankside to watch "the Lions part" perform their 25th traditional Twelfth Night traditional events and celebrations (I've previously been to their Apple Day at Borough Market 'October Plenty'). These traditions included the Green Man (Holly Man) arriving across the river Thames, Wassailing through Bankside, a Mummer's Play, traditional dancing, and the crowning of the King Bean and Queen Pea. I will explain more in detail about these different traditions below. (Last year, I celebrated Twelfth Night at the Geffrye Museum, but the museum is currently closed for a couple of years due to renovations.)

'Ephiphany' comes from a Greek word that means "manifestation", and in Christain religion, this was written as the day when the wise men arrived to see the baby Jesus and presented him with gifts. Further back in time, this time of the year was celebrated as the Winter Solstice when the days start to get lighter earlier again. The Romans called it "Saturnalia", and they spent the time feasting, exchanging gifts, playing games, and swapping social status. They also decorated the buildings with greenery to welcome the promise of spring and warmer months. The bonfire was important to keep a Yule log alight through the dark winter months. A "Lord of Misrule" was appointed on Twelfth Night to conduct the merry-making. These traditions continued throughout the past years with some evolving into indoor Christmas trees, pine branches, and mistletoe and chocolate Yule logs.

The Twelfth Night was the final day of celebrations before people had to return to work in medieval England. What happened on the night was the "topsy turvy" gender and social status reversals, which was one of the traditions carried over from the Roman Saturnalia. Master and slave would have had rules reversed, but in medieval England, the person who found a pea or a bean would be queen or king for the day. The Twelfth Night also meant playing games, drinking, and feasting. 

The celebrations of Twelfth Night started on Bankside about ten minutes prior to the main event with entertainers dressed as drinking pirates firing up the crowd.

When the time came, part of the group paraded through the street of Bankside to arrive at the crowd. These included the bell-ringers and a symbol of the apple tree. They announced the arrival of the Green Man, known as the Holly Man in winter form. The Green Man is meant to arrive by boat on the Thames, but they have not been permitted to arrive by the river for health and safety reasons for the past couple of years.

The Green Man conducted the Wassails. The first one was for the boat, and the second wassail was for the symbolic apple tree present and being carried.

The tradition of wassailing is a rural one. Wassail is a drink of mulled apple cider or ale, and on the Twelfth Night, a group of people would gather together. They would be led by the king and queen of the wassailing party and sing and put drink amongst the apple trees to promote good health and to keep away the evil spirits. If successful, this would produce good harvests. The wassailing can also be done in the town from house-to-house where people would sing and drink the mulled drink. Today, the tradition of caroling replaces wassailing.

The Green Man drank the drink from a wooden bowl, as per tradition, during the Wassail.

The Green Man is a symbol that pre-dates Christianity and has been adopted by Christianity possibly in earlier days to promote pagan conversions to Christainity. He is almost always depicted as male and can be found in cathedrals. He is depicted with vines and branches making up his head or coming from his head. "The Green Man" is also a popular name for English pubs. He has become a motif, and his symbol essentially means "rebirth". 

After the Green Man performed the boat and apple tree wassails, the event continued to the front of the Globe theatre.

We met the mayor of Southwark, who attended the special Twelfth Night event.

The Globe Wassail was then recited.

After this wassail, the event continued with the Mummer's Play. What is a Mummer's Play? A Mummer's Play is a traditional play, and it essentially involves two characters who participate in a sword dance and sword combat; the loser of this combat is then revived by a doctor character. These plays are usually held on special days, such as Halloween, Bonfire Night, Shrove Tuesday, and Twelfth Night.

The primary characters are King George and the main opponent (sometimes called the Turkish Knight as a country of conflict to the nation), a doctor, Father Christmas, and Beelzebub (devil). The mummers would paint their faces and wear their coats inside out, adorning it with colourful rags. 

Mumming was the most popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. It slowed down after the Great War. There are slight variations of the story based on the time of the year.

The Mummer's Play started off with singing and dancing. I was lucky to have a space in the front to watch considering that each aspect of the event required moving and walking around to a different area on Bankside, so it did not matter how early you visited but you needed to be in the right place at the right time.

After the doctor brought King George back to life, the singing and dancing continued, and Twelfth Night cakes were handed out. Traditionally, these are fruit cakes, but the cakes passed out were modern day sponge cakes. A pea or bean could be found in any of the cakes, and this would make the finder the Queen or King of the day.

A little girl found the pea, and she became the queen and had a straw crown and had to also carry a parsnip. An older man found the bean and was crowned, and he had to carry a cabbage and sprouts.

This was then the beginning of the group wassail through the streets from The Globe theatre, through Borough Market, and to the George Inn pub.

The George Inn is a listed building owned by the National Trust and dates from the medieval ages. This is the only surviving galleried coaching innm and it was frequented by Charles Dickens. This part of London had many inns, and one of those was the Tabard, where Chaucer started to write "The Canterbury Tales"; it was demolished in the late 1800s. The George was rebuilt after a fire in Southwark in 1677. These types of inns with galleries were used for Elizabethan theatre productions, called inn-yard theatre. So, this was a perfect place for the continuation of the Twelfth Night celebrations.

The events continued with the "George Inn Wassail" to celebrate the old building, its patrons and drinking. And several people started to drink and enjoy the festivities.

The George Inn also had a wishing tree. A wishing tree is a tree that has spiritual value, and people place offerings on the tree in the hope that the wish is granted. One type of wishing tree is a tree trunk that has coins hammered into it. Some timbers in pubs have a beam for coins to be hammered into them as offerings too. In addition to hammering coins in, pieces of cloth can also be tied to trees as offerings. This tree had ribbons tied to it.

Morris dancers also started to dance at one end of the inn's yard, and the other end of the yard also had traditional dancing, though I am not sure if it was Morris dancing or not.

And, this concludes with the Twelfth Night celebrations. I did not stay at the George Inn for too long because I had had a long day and I went to the celebrations by myself so wasn't really in the mood for hanging around by myself. I did not event attempt to get a drink as I thought that the pub would be busy. However, I enjoyed this event and learning about the traditional aspects of Twelfth Night and celebrating the day or understanding how to celebrate the day as it had been celebrated in the past. I think that it would be very nice if we continued to celebrate this day as in a lot of places, the event and festivities end after Christmas Day. Imagine if we had a few more days to have parties. Spreading it out may make it less stressful.

It's already January, and I bought several Lush bath bombs and soaps to use up before Christmas, but I found that the time went super-quick and I did not get time for relaxing in the bath during the season. I visited a Lush shop at the end of September. I enjoy visiting the shop to see which products they have brought back for a new year and to check out their new products. Golden Wonder, pear soap, butterbear, snow fairy, and Luxury Christmas pud were a few of the past products that came back this year.

From top left: Cheery Christmas bath bomb; Golden Pear soap; butterbear bath bomb; Luxury Lush Pud bath bomb; Strawberry Santa bath bar; Iceshoggles soap; Naughty Elf bubble bar

I loved the festive Candy Cane Bubble Bar pictured above.

Puddy Holly Bubbleroon is the above product, and I love how festive this one looks. It's a soft butter-bubblebar with a thin layer of ultra-soft body butter in the middle.

The new collection above consisted of the Princess Bath Bomb, Snowman Bath Bomb, and Santa Bath bomb (pictured in both photographs above).

The World's Smallest Disco bath bomb is dark grey with bright pops of colour and one that I was instantly attracted to purchase.

Holey Night Bath Bomb is pictured above.

Ghost in the Dark Soap was one of the Halloween products that I thought was really cute. Lush are certainly getting bigger on Halloween now, especially since they have now expanded into America where Halloween is a big deal. A few years ago, there was only one or two offerings for Halloween, such as the pumpkin soap or 'cinders' bath bomb, which is more of a Bonfire Night treat.

Eyeball Bath Bomb was another one of the Halloween products at Lush for last Halloween.

I'm still catching up from last year. This past Christmas, the beauty and skincare subscriber box Glossybox has released their first ever advent calendar. I expected it to fly off the shelves. As soon as it was available, I purchased it because I saw a sneak preview of what was inside, and I loved the different selection of products. They were all different brands and mainly products that I had never tried before. I was impressed at the selection of the different types of products in the calendar, and these will all come in very useful over the course of this new year.

I loved the box that the advent calendar came in with the individually-designed boxes. It's a good-quality box that can be reused. I've added several photographs of it below. Sorry that none of these are the best photographs, but I had a very busy November and December and had to rush the photographs and didn't get time to use natural light or plan a pretty set-up. Also, getting what I did capture was a little bit in a feat itself as my two Maine Coons love to be in the limelight.

Now, what did I get? Here's the updated list organised by day:

NARS Velvet Lip Glide in 'Immortal': Two different colour options were available, and I received the pink or fuschia-coloured 'Immortal' instead of the bright red 'Burning Love'. This suited me fine because I already own this product in a bright red colour, and I don't care much for bright red lipstick. The matte application is long-lasting, and it is a matte finish. The colour is still a little bold for me, but I will find a use for it.

Nip & Fab Dragons Blood Fix Plumping Serum: This skin-care serum helps to firm and hydrate skin. It contains a product from a tree called 'Dragon's Blood' that has been used since ancient timesto plump and heal skin, and apparently it helps dry skin and eczema too. With the harsh winter weather, I have a little bit of dry skin on my face, so I am interested to try this.

Yankee Candle Christmas Edition ('Berry Trifle'): One of three festive scents could have been included in the advent calendar. The others were 'The Perfect Tree', which is a pine tree smell or 'Season of Peace', which is a relaxing scent. I received 'Berry Trifle', which is a sweet berry scent. I have previously had this scent in a smaller candle.

Philip Kingsley Body Building Conditioner: This conditioner helps to boost volume, hydrate hair, and prevent static. I'm curious to see how this product behaves with my hair as some of this brand's products go very thick and make my hair appear greasy. This product is suitable for coloured hair too.

MDM Great Than Mascara: This highly-pigmented mascara comes with a brush that applies the product in a desired way with a thinner or thicker end. It curls and adds volume with a thick and dark colour. I love the gold packaging for this product, so this would be something to add bling to my handbag.

3ina The Lip Primer: Lip primer helps to add long-lasting colour to lips. It should be used before applying lip colour, and it helps to moisturise lips as well as making a brighter colour. I've never used a lip primer before, so I am excited about trying this one.

Patisserie de Bain Strawberry Cupcake Body Wash: I love the branding of this kitsch bath and shower gel, which was created to remind users of French patisserie sweetness. This sweet scent is 'Strawberry Cupcake' and lathers up in the water. I'm not overly keen on the scent of this one for the shower, but I love the branding. 

Real Techniques Expert Face Brush: Perfect for applying cream and foundations to blend without the mess, this brush is actually a best-seller. I need some good make-up brushes, so I am interested in trying this one out.

Charles Worthington Volume & Bounce Body Booster Mousse: This hair spray mousse promises that the wearer will have bouncer and fuller-volume hair. It can be used on colour-treated hair. I am a little less keen about this product because a lot of them make my hair look greasy or over-styled.  

bareMinerals © SKINLONGEVITY™ Vital Power Infusion: This product helps to hydrate and add vitamins to skin during the dry winter months. It will help improve overall complexion. My skin has been very dry already, and it's not really been too cold for long, so I could use this.

Bellapierrie Kiss Proof Lip Finish: This clear lip gloss is meant to be worn on top of lip colour. It adds a bit of gloss and increases the colour of your lipstick and adds to the longevity of the lipstick as well. The product prevents your lip colour from transferring from lips.

MUA Cosmic Vixen Palette: This eyeshadow palette contains fifteen different and highly-pigmented shades to choose from. These shades are all perfect for the festive season and are highly-blendable, and they can be used together to create just the right shade for your party look.

Karmameju Konjac Sponge: This Konjac sponge helps to keep acne at bay if used daily by cleansing the skin. The sponge also contains charcoal to help scrub away dead skin. Konjac is a plant that contains amino acids and vitamins to help purify and smooth the skin.

Elgon Concentrated Restoring Mask: This hair mask promises to restore, add shine, and nourish hair as well as to remove the harm caused by chemicals and hair products. I'm excited to try a new hair mask product.

INC.redible Jelly Shot Lip Quencher (Ex Revenge): This interesting transparent lip product is a lip balm to help the wearer get through the cold winter months. This product contains 24k gold flakes to help give the wearer's lips a shimmery glow. In addition to looking good and having a nice package design (pictured below), the product helps to moisturise lips.

Pop Beauty Eyeshadow Pigment (Metallic Copper): This highly-pigmented powder can be used on eyes, cheeks, nails or lips. It can be combined with lipstick to create a festive glittery lip glow or mixed with transparent nail polish. I love these highly-pigmented powders. This one is a metallic copper, but I would consider it a deeper red colour.

Luxie Rose Gold Tapered Highlighter Brush 522: This tapered highlighter brush helps the wearer add highlighter products to give the face and eyes a definition. A good set of brushes is essential to have for your make-up regime, and I needed some new brushes to help me apply my make-up.

Lollipops Highlighter: This travel-sized highlighter comes in a cute little tube and adds shimmer and definition to areas of the face, such as cheekbones, nose, and brows.

Crabtree & Evelyn Rosewater & Pink Peppercorn Hand Therapy: I do love the Crabtree & Evelyn scents. This is a deeply-moisturising hand cream. It is perfect for the dry winter months. I also love the fact that I find their products easily absorb into the skin without feeling greasy or heavy on the skin.

Steve Laurent Lipgloss (Eggplant): A very lightweight formula designed to moisturise and make lips look good, this lipgloss is also highly-pigmented. It is a dark but popping berry shade, known as "Eggplant". This looks like a perfect festive shade.

Pixi by Petra Fresh Face Blush (Beach Rose): I love the brand Pixi by Petra. This shade of blush is 'beach rose', and it is a powder blush. It promises to be a long-lasting and natural mineral blush.

Zelens Transformer Instant Renewal Mask: This anti-aging face mask promises a more youthful complexion and firmer skin. It contains ingredients to remove dead skin cells and other vitamins and ingredients to oxygenate the skin.

Eyeko Fat Eye Stick (Satin): This fat eye stick is a shimmery eyeshadow to allow the wearer to create a smokey eye effect. I'd previously received one of these in a subscription box, and the product is a little too thick for my liking to apply easily. The shade that I received is 'Satin', which is a copper shade.

Mitchell & Peach Flora No.1 Fine Radiance Oil: This facial oil should be applied overnight to firm and tighten skin and provide a youthful complexion. It has a subtle floral scent.

Huda Beauty Winter Solstice Palette: This pearly highlighter palette can create an instant glow to skin, and the shades are perfect for the winter months. The pearl makes them luminous. I am looking forward to trying these highlighter shades.

That wraps it up for the Glossybox "All I Want" 2018 advent calendar! I am excited to try these products as I have not tried the majority of them. I was really impressed with Glossybox's first ever advent calendar.

This year, Bournemouth have launched a new Christmas Tree Wonderland and Christmas Tree Trail. The majority of the trail is located in the middle of Bournemouth in the Lower Gardens and along part of the seafront near the entrance to the Lower Gardens. Included in the evening is additional entertainment, light and audio shows, fireworks, and a Christmas market. I visited it last weekend. For those who wish to go, you still have time as the trail ends on January 2. Do note that not all of the lights or trees may be lit up, and some of the shows are timed.

The Christmas market has a number of items for sale, and I had a quick browse. Primarily, the market was a place to get food and drink, and I had a hot chocolate that came with a candy cane and gingerbread man.

The first part of the trail that I saw was at The Triangle, up the hill from the Lower Gardens. But, the majority of the trail was located in the Lower Gardens as this is a larger area. I was also able to see where the new cinema and restaurants are as they have been renovating the centre.

The centre of the tree trail is the light and audio show, and visitors have to walk through the middle of the Bournemouth Wonderland Tree to get to the other side of the trail. The Christmas tree changed colours and patterns and was synchronised to music. Many different parts of favourite Christmas songs were played.

The other trees are had names inspired by various locations.

Oslo Tree

Warsaw Tree

Gingerbread man

Illuminated rocks and stream

Bournemouth illuminated wheel and trees

Seattle tree

Bethlehem tree

St. Petersburg Tree

St. Petersburg Tree

Tree of light

Moscow tree

Illuminated walk-through bauble

This was a fun evening out, but town was very busy with visitors and it was difficult to walk through the large tree because of the number of people and no set "one way" trails. They really needed to make the trail in this area one-way with a diversion around or put a rope down the middle. Anyway, it was a very nice evening and a festive trail.

Festive afternoon tea at The Connaught Hotel in Mayfair, London is held at the Jean-Georges Restaurant, and I visited yesterday in the early afternoon with friends and the bloke. This year, we were looked after extremely well by the hotel and the staff at Jean-Georges and were seated in the beautiful conservatory. The restaurant is named after chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. The traditional (with contemporary flavours and style) afternoon tea is served with a festive twist from the end of November until the end of the festive period.

At this time of year, The Connaught and London looks very festive. In front of the hotel this year, a giant Christmas tree glows. Each year, The Connaught Hotel in Mayfair has a different artist design their Christmas tree, and this year, it is designed by Michael Craig-Martin; for more information and photographs, see The Connaught Christmas Tree 2018 is Designed by Michael Craig-Martin.

We had champagne first, and this was served in the bar while we waited a couple of minutes for our table to be ready. When we were sat at the table, I ordered Darjeeling tea.

Up first was the pre-afternoon tea item of a "Black Tru e Feuillette", which is a delicious puff pastry with a hint of truffle flavour. This was delicious, and I was equally impressed last year.

Next, we were served a selection of sandwiches. These included: cucumber Greek yogurt with lime and mint on herb bread; egg and mayonaisse with watercress on onion bread; smoke salmon with chipotle, coriander and lettuce; roast ham and butternut squash and white miso/black pepper on walnut bread; turkey with mayonnaise. The walnut bread was delicious, and I enjoyed the ham and cucumber sandwiches.

Next up were a selection of plain and raisin scones, and these were served with clotted cream, lemon curd, and strawberry jam.

Then, the cute pastries arrived. On the top tier, we enjoyed spiced chocolate fondue with gingerbread men.

From the top: Orage Hazlenut Praline with orange mousse. This was probably my favourite and it was a solid thin ball of chocolate with a creamy orange flavour inside; it had a hazlenut in the centre. Christmas Log Raisin Shortbread, Caramel Tonka Crémeux.

Coconut Passion Fruit Jelly Whipped Coconut Cream. Chestnut pear compote with chestnut cream. Apple & Mince Milk Mousse, Cinnamon Streusel Chocolate.

Overall, it was a lovely afternoon and evening enjoying afternoon tea before the festivities. I hope that everyone has a good few days. Happy holidays.

Peggy Porchen Cakes is one of London's most photographed cafes, and I have been wanting to visit it for over two years. I finally got to after work one afternoon in the middle of November. I was then able to make another visit in mid-December early in the morning on a weekday. The attractive pink shop opened in late 2010 and is located on a corner on Elizabeth Street between Victoria and Sloane Square, on the fringe of London's Belgravia. Peggy Porschen go all out on their decorations, and the cakes and other treats are highly-decorated to look beautiful; their clients include celebrities and royalty. They have provided wedding and celebration cakes for a many celebrities.

This little pink cafe gets so much attention, and because it is so busy, I was put off going at the weekend because I'm not really a fan of crowds. The location is a bit out of the way for me as well, so I did not want to be disappointed. I thought that at 4:00 on a work night (I cannot get there any sooner than this really) would have been relatively quiet, but there was a pretty long queue when I arrived! The place is now massively popular with non-Londoners too as quite a lot of the people visiting were from out of town.

Anyway, my visit on a week night in the afternoon included a long queue to be seated, and I did not want to wait that long. I just got a few photographs and took a few items home with me. 

My second visit happened very early on a Monday morning. Peggy Porschen Cakes opens at 8:00am, and I arrived close to ten minutes early. I took my time looking at the beautiful displays and windows on Elizabeth Street and then waited outside the shop for it to open. I was the first one there, which actually surprised me as I expected that it would be busy. However, not long after I arrived and placed my order, others started to turn up. I wanted to sit outside, and it was a little chilly but manageable, but three couples who turned up sat inside. I had the outside to myself.

What did I order? For starters, it was early for me and chilly, so I opted for the hot chocolate. This came with plenty of miniature marshmallows on the side and a lovely stencil design of snowflakes on top of the frothy cream. It looks very pretty, but it wasn't the best hot chocolate that I have had, but the warmth was satisfying.

I also had the snowman chocolate cupcake. I had had one earlier in the season, but I could not remember the flavour of it but did remember the gingerbread one was really good. As I couldn't remember what flavour I had last time, I opted for the snowman cupcake in chocolate. And, I found out that this is what I had last time. It was okay, but I preferred the gingerbread cupcake that I had previously.

To finish, I had the biscuit shaped like an ice skate. I took this home, and it came in its own little package, but I really wanted to photograph it here. I did enjoy this.

The cafe is gorgeous, and I just could not stop taking photographs of it all!

On my previous visit, I did not want to wait for a table because there was a long queue. I had no idea that it would be that popular on a weeknight just before 4:00, so I mentioned that I took a few items home with me. These are posted below as a part of my original write-up. I honestly did not believe that I would get around to visiting again so soon after it's taken me over two years to make my first visit. First up, I choose a couple of cupcakes. The one on the right is a "Christmas Cabin Speculoo" cupcake; I didn't know what this meant, but I believe it was a German-style gingerbread. The cupcake was a gingerbread-flavour and tasted light and was actually really good. It wasn't too heavy nor too sweet. The second one has a snowman decoration and is a chocolate cupcake.

They also had another cupcake with a snowman design on the top, but the cake is a different flavour. I did not try this one, but it is lemon and gingerbread. I bought the other gingerbread one, so I did not need to try this one. 

I also got a slice of coconut cake; a photograph of the whole cake is below. I thought it looked very pretty. It had round orbs of different pastel colours (pink, cream, and green), snowfakes and smaller white and silvery orbs. The cake was very light and tasted like subtle coconut. I was not as keen on the icing. It was light as well but tasted a bit greasy.

They also had a cake with macaroons on it.

I would like to get to Peggy Porschen's Cakes bakery and cafe again next spring when it is decorated with floral displays. Also, they are launching a new venue in Chelsea on King's Road. I happened to see their new location when I went to check out the Christmas displays on The Ivy Garden Chelsea restaurant, and it is not far from there. Hopefully I will get to do visit Peggy Porschen Cakes again now that I have finally been, so watch this space.