We spent the day (one of the two rainiest) around Regent and Oxford Streets, doing the Christmas shopping thing. We’d never made it to Fortnum and Mason before, so pretty much had to do that to see their windows (I came out with tea and jam, and BF got an ornament). We then back tracked to a nearby bookstore as well as a café that had had some excellent looking pastries in the window. Thus fortified, we headed up to Liberty. (I came out of there with two ornaments and some fabric. I’d had plans to look at the accessories on the ground floor, but there was nothing I needed badly enough to fight that many people.)
After afternoon fortification (aka, a nap. We are old.), we had dinner at Wagamama in Covent Garden, which lead to our first views of the area’s Christmas lights.
That was followed by our first of two evening treats – a Christmas choral concert by Ex Cathedra at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. We’d been in the crypt of this church before – it’s right off Trafalgar Square, and has café. But we’d never been in the church proper before. (The post war window up from earned a mention in Atlas Obscura – it’s an interesting look.)
It was a great concert, with a mix of music from a wide timeline, and was an interesting reminder that there are lots of different Christmas traditions in other countries that even share our language – what we hear during the season is not the totality of the music available. (Those wacky Brits use different music for “Away in a Manger”. I’d heard it before, but it’s still weird to hear.)
We had to head back through Covent Garden, so got another look at the lights there as we passed by.
