Christmas in London

People always told me London was the place to be before and during Christmas. They were always talking about 'Christmas shopping' in London, how beautiful the shop windows were and how much effort they put in decorating them.

I have been in London with Christmas a couple of times now and discovered that most of it is true when you visit Oxford Street and Regent Street. Of course other shops have decorated their shop windows too, but (in my opinion) not more or less then in other countries in Europe. However, in Oxford Street and Regent Street they indeed went over the top to create that Christmas feeling.

When I visited London with Christmas in 1999, people had done a lot more effort in decorating their shops, houses and even streets. However, this might have been because everybody geared up for the Millennium celebrations. I also heard that one of the local radio stations had a contest where the best decorated house would be rewarded. This resulted in the most wonderful, but sometimes weird, decorated houses.

I think that, when you are into shopping, Christmas is THE time to come over to London. You have to keep in mind that Christmas is quite a big family event in England and therefore it is one of the busiest times. Some people really get crazy over it and you should not be surprised to see really crazy situations. Although it is not as bad as in 'Jingle all the way' with Arnold Schwarzenegger, sometimes there is a close similarity. :+)