Christmas in London

On the way home from our trip to the mountains to get our tree, my family dropped me off at the airport for an overnight flight to the UK for a business trip. I stayed in central London so on my last night there I went out to see London at Christmas for the first time and do a little shopping.


I headed out to the National Science Museum first which was just a few blocks from my hotel. I wanted to check out their shop for some good science gifts for the kids.

Here is a shot of the ice skating rink outside of the National History Museum. The Museum is the building in the background.

Harrod's was a short walk from the Science museum. It was all lit up and beautiful. A full city block of lights.

They had a Wizard of Oz theme in their storefront windows.

I snapped a few pictures inside. They have 4 floors of very expensive items...and have a Krispy Kreme on their food floor.

This is the Pet Fashion department.

I then caught the Underground "tube" over to Picadilly Circus to see the lights on Regent and Oxford Street.

The lights were beautiful.

I finally found Hamley's, an awesome 4 story toy store. I spent way too much money in there. They have sales people throughout the store doing demo's of toys. They convinced me to buy some fake snow (which is really cool) and a brush guaranteed not to hurt for 12 pounds (~$19). That brush is worth it's weight in gold. It brushes through Casey's hair in just a few strokes with no crying or pain. It is only available in the UK and it's called a Tangle Teezer




I was pretty much exhausted at this point, but decided to head over to the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park. It was kind of a Winter Festival fair type deal.

One of the first things to greet me was a moose singing Christmas carols with some fake snow. He was pretty good.

I loved seeing all of the different kinds of food vendors. This was a Crepe vendor.

A fish and chips place and a coffee and tea shop.

There were a lot of German food vendors. You can see the rides in the background. My co-workers kept mentioning a "big wheel" at Winter Wonderland, I wasn't sure what they were talking about until I got there and saw the ferris wheel.

Chestnuts roasting.

I drug myself back to the hotel and could barely take another step and my arms were sore from carrying around bags of stuff. It was worth it to see London at Christmas (and get an almost $20 magic brush).