It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
It is truly the most wonderful time of the year! Hope everyone is getting into the festive season with lots of Christmas magic, joy and merry, merry!
The Christmas season is upon us! We absolutely love this time of the year where everything is festive and bright. Kenz is lucky to work in Mayfair. His walk from Charing Cross station takes him through Trafalgar Square and the “Oslo” Christmas tree. Gorgeous New Bond Street and elegant Jermyn Street are right around the corner from his office in St. James Square. With the company Christmas parties behind us, it is time to celebrate the festive season at home. Home is where the heart is.
Deck the Halls
It’s no exaggeration my dear husband doesn’t just celebrate Christmas, he overindulges in all things merry and bright. We affectionately call Kenz my “Clark Griswold” from the National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Why? Because Kenz loves the magic of Christmas and wants everything to be festive for the holiday season. And if you haven’t seen this classic 1989 Christmas movie, I highly recommend you add to your must-see holiday movies.
Christmas starts early in our home. The joke is Halloween + 1 day is when you can deck the halls. Truth is that we have accumulated many Christmas decorations over the years and takes a few weekends to get everything out and up for friends and family to enjoy.
Advent Calendars
By 1st December, it is time to kick off the festive season with advent calendars. Kenz got a mini Marvel-themed Christmas advent calendar. Lady Yeya has a homemade advent calendar of Schleich toys to add to her growing collection of 200+ Schleich animals, plus mini Disney and Marvel Christmas-themed books. Going the traditional route, I went for a Hotel Chocolat advent calendar. Sweet Buddy always gets a Lily’s Kitchen dog treat advent which he also gifted a box to his new furry friend Coco. Advent calendars is a fun way to count down to Christmas.
London Transport Museum & Covent Garden
The Christmas tree in Covent Garden is our favourite in London. We always make a point of taking Lady Yeya to Covent Garden with a visit to the London Transport Museum. Our NY-based expat-repat friends were in town for a wedding at the Corinthia Hotel and we hosted their 10 year old overnigh so they could enjoy an adult celebration. Since we were in Covent Garden, we took the kids to the Transport Museum. Luckily Father Christmas was there to greet the children.
Hamley’s Toy Store & London Christmas Light
Another annual Christmas tradition is a trip to Hamley’s on Regent Street where we let Lady Yeya pick out a small toy. After going around each floor admiring the new collection of Paw Patrol and PJ masks toys, Lady Yeya sensibly picked out a Ty beanie baby elf and a small Cocker Spaniel stuffy toy. A few photo ops later at the Christmas sleigh, giant panda bear, and beefeater bears, it was time to leave as Hamley’s gets busy by noon. Off we go for some traditional dumplings at Baozi Inn on Romilly Street before admiring the gorgeous Christmas lights on Oxford Street, Regents Street and my favourite New Bond Street.
School Activities: Ice Skating, Nativity Play, and Christmas Faire
With Lady Yeya in Reception, there are many school-related events to mark the festive season. I am a Reception class rep together with four other mums where we organise all things social for kiddos and parents, plus gifts for the teachers. Each teacher received a John Lewis gift card and ‘handmade’ wreath and Christmas tree cards made with love from hand cut-outs on green construction paper by each child.
Ice Skating at Canary Wharf & Market Hall
We also organised an ice skating session in Canary Wharf to kick off the magical Christmas season with 37 skaters in total. There are so many lovely ice skating rinks around London, but we picked Canary Wharf for ease of transportation. Plus, the ice rink is covered to hedge against the inclement British weather. Christmas is all about making magical festive memories to cherish. We are delighted the kiddos had a blast ice skating along their classmates and adorable penguin skate aids.
Afterwards, we had lunch at Market Hall at the CrossRail station. It is a great place for a relaxed lunch with a large group as there are several food outlets to pick from. All in all, a great day out with Lady Yeya’s school friends and their parents.
Baarmy Bethlehem Nativity Play
Later in the week, it was time for Lady Yeya’s first nativity play – Baarmy Bethlehem – performed by the Pre-Prep children. It was the cutest thing ever. We couldn’t be more proud, watching with joy and big smiles. The responsibilities grow as children move up years. As such, the Reception kids were stars clad in all black attire and did a dance ensemble. Meanwhile, Y1 children were sheep, and the speaking roles went to Y2 students. From Y3 in Prep, children perform at a local church, and the Senior School kids have performances at the Southwark Cathedral.
Christmas Faire
Each year the Friends Committee at Lady Yeya’s school organises a fantastic Christmas Faire in the Great Hall. Each year group is responsible for a stall of different “themes”: Y2 – ‘adopted animal,’ Y3 – ‘jolly jam jars,’ and Ys7-9 had the hugely popular Chocolate Tombola. The Junior School hosted the bottle tombola consisting of alcoholic and non-alcoholic bottles which was kindly donated by families. My favourite stall was Y4’s junior school tea towels of hand-drawn faces of pupils from each year group. The Reception Class hosted a ‘pocket money toys’ of the most random items from yo-yo to squishy pandas, but kids absolutely loved it.
Outside was a beautiful Santa’s Grotto and a Helter Skelter inflatable and at the canteen was an array of hot drinks, minced pies and sausage rolls. It was a lot of fun seeing the children and parents get into the Christmas spirit. We are very grateful to be part of this wonderful school community.
Snowy London
As an extra bonus this year to add to the magical festive season: snow! London accumulated about 3-5 cm of snow overnight with a fresh blanket of snow in time for Monday morning’s school run. Lady Yeya was delighted to see the park transformed into ‘Frozen.’ We left the house early to enjoy the snow before taking her to school. It was all very magical.
Look forward to more Christmassy cheers and good eats next week!
