It is a beautiful church and the concert was spectacular.
A fun thing to do in London during Christmas is go to the hotels and see the decorations.
The best place to go is The Ritz.
This is the lobby tree!
Christmas Afternoon Tea. We were visiting with a lady...she said she booked her reservation for Christmas Tea in March...so no, we did not have tea that day, but we enjoyed the atmosphere and the beautiful decorations.
Harpist playing in the grand hall.
The decorations were very opulent. Even mounted deer trophies!
We continued down Piccadilly to Fortnum & Mason, a department store established in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason. It has the most amazing food hall, hampers, candy and chocolate counters and a very high end grocery shop. But also on upper floors, jewelry, clothing, perfumes and a golf themed gentlemen's floor. For Christmas the outside was decorated like an advent calendar with numbers in the windows.
On the hour the clock strikes and Fortnum and Mason come out to greet all visitors.
Beautiful decorations at every turn.
We even ran across some reindeer!
...and a palm tree?!
We stumbled upon this street with it's beautiful buildings with
amazing architectural details and lovely lights.
amazing architectural details and lovely lights.
Love the road signs here...yield is Give Way...
Every way you look was so beautiful.
Just down the road from here was Grosvenor Square.
The square was turned into a memory garden and called 'An Ever After Garden'. It was filled with over 27,000 illuminated roses. Visitors could 'plant' a rose in memory of a loved one.
The next day we had tickets to a Christmas Sing-a-long at Royal Albert Hall. We had a little extra time before it started so we rode the bus out to an iconic pub in Kensington.
The Churchill Arms Pub puts up about 80 Christmas trees on the outside of it's building.
We were here in the day...
but this is what it looks like at night all lit up and festive!
The rest of the year the pub is covered in flowing plants.
We have seen the Albert Memorial many times...it's in Hyde Park across the street from the Royal Albert Hall, but had never paid close attention to the four corners. Each represent the 4 main continents or corners of the earth. In the back corner is the America sculptures including a bison.
Royal Albert Hall is a beautiful concert hall holding 5200 people.
It was opened by Queen Victoria in 1871.
It is beautiful inside.
It was a fabulous and very fun concert and sing-a-long with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Choral Society, National Youth Choir of Great Britain, soloists Joe Stilgoe, and the Royal Trumpeters.
The hall also has a large pipe organ.
Santa also made an appearance!
Royal Albert Hall is a beautiful concert hall holding 5200 people.
It was opened by Queen Victoria in 1871.
Our sheet of words so that we could sing-a-long.
After the concert we were out to see more lights as we rode the bus out to Somerset House.
Somerset House has a large beautiful Christmas Tree
and a big skating rink.
It was so beautiful and festive to be out enjoying all that London has to offer during Christmas!
From Somerset House we walked to Covent Gardens to see their big tree.
We just kept walking over to Seven Dials to see their decorations.
London really does know how to 'light the world' at Christmas time!!!
On the walk back to the hotel we found this beautiful tree. The lights were so bright it didn't photograph very well...but it was so pretty!
Christmas Eve was a beautiful sunny day.
We had tickets to see 'The Nutcracker' at the London Coliseum.
Very cute Christmas tree made from old toe shoes!
This theater opened December 24, 1904 as the largest in London.
It is now the home to the English National Ballet.
...more side streets...more lights and decorations...we walked to Heliot Steak House
for a nice Christmas Eve dinner.
Christmas morning as we headed down for breakfast we were surprised to see we had a visit from Santa Clause to our hotel room door.
We had tangerines and chocolate and sweet treats.
At breakfast we had Christmas crackers at our place setting and chocolates.
On Christmas day there is no public transport in London. But the Hop On Hop Off buses are running. So that is what we did on Christmas. We took the whole circle tour to get over to where we were going to have Christmas dinner.
It was so fun because we got to see the city in a way we had not seen it before.
Riding across the Tower Bridge.
But, come on...look at that blue sky...Christmas Day!!! It was glorious!
After we rode around, we got off close to our dinner restaurant and walked along the Thames River to Blackfriars to the Chinese Cricket Club.
Seems crazy, but the Chinese restaurant was having a traditional Christmas dinner buffet.
Turkey & gravy, roast potatoes, brussel sprouts; also salmon, pork, salads, rolls, yummy desserts...it did not disappoint...very delicious!
And, traditional Christmas crackers with the paper crowns, jokes and small toy.
The hotel where the restaurant is located was decorated beautifully.
We made a very good choice for Christmas, we loved every minute of it.
Then it was back on the bus for another swing around the city,
why not...our ticket was good for all day!
Day or night, the city is beautiful and especially on Christmas.
We headed back to the temple on Boxing day to work for the next two days in the temple.
The view of the city from North Bank.
Somerset House has a large beautiful Christmas Tree
and a big skating rink.
It was so beautiful and festive to be out enjoying all that London has to offer during Christmas!
From Somerset House we walked to Covent Gardens to see their big tree.
We just kept walking over to Seven Dials to see their decorations.
On the walk back to the hotel we found this beautiful tree. The lights were so bright it didn't photograph very well...but it was so pretty!
Very cute Christmas tree made from old toe shoes!
It is now the home to the English National Ballet.
for a nice Christmas Eve dinner.
At breakfast we had Christmas crackers at our place setting and chocolates.
Riding across the Tower Bridge.
why not...our ticket was good for all day!
We headed back to the temple on Boxing day to work for the next two days in the temple.
Christmas this year will be one we shall never forget.
We went back to London on December 30 & 31.
Again the weather was beautiful.
The city was packed with people for the New Year's Eve celebration.
We enjoyed the city and joined in with fun picturing taking!
And then we got out of town.
The view of the city from North Bank.
Before heading home we did go to Shepherd's Bush Westfield Mall so we could catch a movie.
After the new year we were back on regular temple schedule. We did enjoy the holiday together in lovely London.