Christmas In London

Okay, Christmas in London is DA BOMB. Even before we lived here, we spent many a Christmas in London. The whole place lights up and goes OTT with decorations and tinsel and baubles and merry wonderful things. Pretty much everything sparkles, and there is no “wrong place” to be. Remember: Victorian England (with help from Germany) basically invented our modern conception of Christmas, so they are the OG of holiday cheer and charm!

St. Paul’s has Christmas concerts, as do most churches. My favorite has always been the musical offerings at St. Martin in the Fields, just off Trafalgar Square. But check every church in the vicinity of where you are staying - there’s always something on.

Oxford Street and Regent Street have amazing lights - as does Carnaby Street. Every department store goes wild with Christmas cheer. Visit Harrod’s, Harvey Nick’s, Liberty London, Selfridges… you will be steeped in Christmas magic.

Fortum and Mason is a dream of holiday decorations and amazing food treats.

Covent Garden always outdoes itself - they have a HUGE TREE plus ginormous hanging decorations in the interior spaces.

Bond Street and New Bond Street slather on the glitter and gold.

There is ice skating - and a wonderful Christmas market - at Somerset House, just off the Strand.

See if you can get tickets to a pantomime! These classic English Christmas shows are riotous fun even for adults, and often feature top drawer British film and theatre stars.

I will leave “stay and eat” to others… but will note that on Christmas Day (and starting Christmas Eve) a lot of the country is CLOSED, so you should double and triple check for opening hours. And if you plan to eat out on Christmas or Boxing Day, make a reservation, to be on the safe side.

TL; dr London is the perfect place to celebrate Christmas. You are in for such a treat!!!!!! :-)

Volva, You've painted a magical picture! for all! Thank you!

Volva did paint a lovely picture. Our Holiday stay in London remains one of our favorite vacations. BUT, you need to know that all public transportation stops late on Cristmas Eve and doesn't resume until Boxing Day. And even then it will be on a reduced schedule. There will still be taxis on Christmas day, but they will charge a higher fare. So pick your accommodations carefully. And reserve your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals well in advance at restaurants within walking distance of your accommodations. We stayed near Green Park, so it was easy to go for a long walk through the parks on Christmas day. We were able to go to the midnight service at Westminster Abbey, which was really nice. And I hit the Boxing Day sale at Selfriges early that morning- Yee Gawd, it was like Macy's on Black Friday!! Lol.

Having been in London twice in December I don’t think any city does Christmas better. Even the barber shops had fabulous decorations:)

I would add to the wonderful list above to go to a Christmas concert at Royal Albert Hall; it was divine.

Both of our trips we stayed at the Sloane Square Hotel and as we like to take the bus it was easy to take a variety of routes to explore (we have been to London many times so we weren’t in a rush). That area was also very Christmasy.

Happy planning!

As noted London is lovely at Christmas.

Do understand on Christmas Day there is NO public transport. So be prepared to walk or pay a pretty pound for a vagabond taxi.

Also other than churches, small markets, and cafes and restaurants owned and operated by non Christians nothing is open.

I’ve spent more than one Christmas in London and have enjoyed being there each time.

As far as what I’ve done over decades of stays:
Enjoyed Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park
Watched a Santa Run in Regents Park
Walked along both Oxford and Regents street
Kew Gardens but tickets in advance
Watched Mark Gatis and Nicholas Farrell perform in Gatis’s A Christmas Story at Alexander Palace
Eaten in and wandered about Chinatown
Watched a children’s Christmas play
Listened to a choral rehearsal
Bought Christmas Cards at Spitalfields, at Portobello Market and from St James of Piccadilly
Walked about Hyde Park
Seen a Panto

Do you ice skate. See if the Somerset House rink will be in operation.

My advice is stay somewhere central. Investigate the Premiere Inns website. Be prepared to explore on foot and to make dinner reservations for Christmas Day.

Lastly, Google is your friend. Search “ things to do in London at Christmas”.

I have spent a the last few Christmas' and New Year's in London. I just made my reservtions for this year a few days ago.

I agree with what everyone has said. Especially of being aware of timings on Xmas Eve, Xmas Day and Boxing Day.

If you want to have Xmas Dinner in a restaurant or pub, you must make reservations. (Not necessary if you want KFC which is usually open.)

Public Transportation shuts early on Xmas Eve, is closed completely on Xmas Day, and has a limited schedule on Boxing Day.

I would say that London is absolutely magical in the run-up to Christmas: from late November and through December until mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve.

It then becomes a bit tricky due to Christmas Day lack of public transport. Eating out also needs pre-planning. The traditional British Christmas Day very much involves hunkering down with family at home so restaurants that are open may be surprisingly expensive (a Christmas Day meal in a pub for example - and that’s likely only to be available in the middle of the day, not the evening).

You will also need to check opening hours at any attraction you want to go to during the Christmas/New Year period as there are a number of public holidays.

The period between Christmas and the New Year is also when maintenance work is most likely to be done on rail lines so it’s a tricky period for day trips from London.

I mention all this merely as a warning. Christmas Day in London is unlike any other day, but if you’re not prepared for the closures and lack of public transport it can be a shock.

My preference would be a few days before Christmas for the true feeling.

No idea what hunkering down and da bomb is?

From late afternoon on Christmas eve until mid day Boxing Day most of the country closes down, there is next to no local public transport and no long distance travel for those two days .Effectively a Sunday service on with travel until the country wakes up on the 2nd of Jan, in many places shops and restaurants having limited or different opening hours. Boxing Day is a sacrosanct day for sport and many a highlight fixture taking place during this period - mainly football and horse racing, with lots of local derbys taking place in gods game over this 10 day period.

I tend to agree that the week before Christmas is the best time to visit. After Christmas a lot of people are off work for the week until Jan 2nd but the festivities are over and nobody really wants to see a Christmas decoration ever again. It’s very dark and usually pretty damp and while it’s nice to be off work I always find that week a bit of a strange time. All the fun stuff happens in the run up.

Laughing spam fritter….

So you have no idea about hunkering down?

To hunker down is to stay in a place for a period of time.

Something like; the weather was miserable so we hunkered down at home and watched old movies.

da bomb is a slang term that means the best.

So now I want a definition of what gods game is?

Christmas at Kew is not to be missed. It is amazing.
https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/christmas

Local derbies are football matches so he means football. It’s not commonly called gods game. Nobody would know what you meant if you said that. It’s known as the beautiful game among other things.

Also local derbies aren’t played on Boxing Day. These are hotly contested matches with the potential for crowd issues and violence. Not very festive.

Carol, I cannot wait to go to Christmas at Kew! We put our trip off until next year but I think that's going to be the first tickets I buy. My only debate is whether to buy them for earlier in the week or wait and go on my birthday (that Friday, likely leaving the next day).

Helen, you should perhaps have mentioned that "derby" is pronounced as "darby" by you crazy Brits.

I should also mention that Christmas in London is a popular Youtube vlog subject so search away. Try for instance Hannah Ricketts to start.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this post. It has helped me make decisions on where to stay and what to see, and I appreciate the time you took to write.

I was there last year with my two daughters, here's the trip report I wrote. Christmas event highlights were the panto and Kew gardens. And the singalong was very fun. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/christmas-in-london-with-teenagers

One other thing I considered but didn't do was one of the the hop-on hop-off buses that runs on Christmas Day. Everything is closed of course, but with much less traffic on London streets that day it would have been fun to see parts of the city we never got to.

Agree with others that London really does Christmas!

Check the "BIG Changes Coming to Paddington" thread posted after this "Christmas" thread. It sounds like train travel between Heathrow (at least) and central London could be "a bit of a sticky wicket" around Christmas this year (sorry, couldn't resist).