Christmas in London

London pretty much shuts down on Christmas day. Which means you'll be walking. I enjoy the Peter Pan Cup Race in the Serpentine early Christmas morning. Then strolling around Hyde park. Be certain to find out if your hotel is offering a Christmas dinner and make a reservation. Or stock up at a Pret a Manager so you'll have something to eat on Christmas day. The easiest way to see what will be open on the dates you'll be in town is to Google Timeout London. There will Christmas Eve carols services, ice skating rinks, glass sculptures, Christmas lights, etc on Christmas eve. The 26th is Boxing Day and there will be some sales but not at Harrod's which will be closed. I love London at Christmas but on my first Christmas visit 15 years ago was VERY surprised to see how much was closed. Now I know what to expect but it does come as a culture shock to many not to find a 7-11 open 24-7 or realize that public transportation is virtually non existent.

London Walks does a couple of their walks on Christmas Day. Here is the link www.walks.com/London_Walks_Home/The_Christmas_Day_Walks/default.aspx Their walks are usually very enjoyable.

From Tripadvisor London Forum, here is this year's list of what is and what is not open over Christmas. http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g186338-i17-k4921131-Christmas_and_New_Year_Opening_Times_2011_12-London_England.html

Don't know what Sabaner ended up doing, but we went to the Peter Pan race at the Serpentine and did one of the London Walks. We were surprised at the large amount of people out walking about the city. Because Christmas Day fell on a Sunday this year, there were limited services on the day after Boxing Day to provide everyone with a day off work. In addition, there was a tube strike on Boxing Day. Those facts caused additional complications, but nothing insurmountable. Many Pret A Mangers were open (but not all), plus some other restaurants.

Hm. Most places will still be open on 24th. I would spend the 25th walking the streets of London because you will very likely have them to yourselves. A walk along the Thames embankment, past the London Eye and Houses of Parliament?

PART 1 of our London Travel Report! Hello,
Thanks to you all for the suggestions. We were in London for 48 hours - the 24th and 25th and flew back to Boston on the 26th. We had a marvelous time. We landed on the 24th and took the Tube to Canada Water. We were staying with my cousin there from where we easily took the Tube to Central London. The Tube was running on schedule on the 24th. We walked around on Bond Street, Regent Street, Hyde Park, had tea at Grosvenor House, then walked all the way from the Park to Buckingham Palace. Then we took the train to Kensington and wove our way to Albert Hall where we caught a show - Carols by Candlelight at 7pm. We ate at a surprisingly good Thai restaurant, Thai Square, on Exhibition Road a few yards from the Hall. We were one of the last customers to be served. We took the last Tube back home. It was a full day.

PART 2 of our London Travel Report - On Sun, C'mas day, we started a tad late and got to Trafalgar Sq via taxi. My cousin had already talked to a company that served her area and they had said they were running every day. So we took the cab to the square for the 2pm walk - Charles Dickens' London Walk. We too were shocked to see the number of people and did not realise that they were all waiting for the London Walks. But there were several guides and they handled the crowd very well. We were on our way and had the best time listening to the history of the area. Our guide Katie was outstanding. Her acting skills were commendable. We were transported to Dickens' London, that's for sure. This was over around 5:30pm after which we stopped for coffee/tea at a local cafe, La Roche. We then decided to walk along the Victoria embankment, past Big Ben, crossed over the Westminster Bridge and walked along the other side of the embankment, past the London Eye, Waterloo Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Southwark Bridge, and then stopped at Tas restaurant for a tasty Turkish dinner. After the wholesome meal, we resumed our walk and went past London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and walked the rest of the way home to Canada Water. So between a taxi and walking, we managed to tour London just fine.

Part 3 of our London Travel Report - On the 26th, we had the same taxi driver pick us up from my cousin's home to Piccadilly station. We took a coach service to Heathrow. We had bought these tickets on the 24th before exiting the airport. The only thing that we did not account for was the heavy delays in reaching Heathrow due to traffic on the roads. We were just in time to board our flights so extra time on our part would have saved us some dashes we had to take on between stations and terminals. Other than that, we had a memorable trip and all our anxiety regarding closures came to nothing. We could not have asked for a better way to spend C'mas. We will now have to go back when London is open.

I think you had the bad luck to get caught up in the traffic problems caused by the closure of the Hammersmith flyover due to structural defects! It closed on 23 December and as the major route west out of London caused no end of problems in that neck of the woods.

Thanks for the update. Sounds like a great time and you guys did a marvelous job of making the most of it.