Christmas: A festive day out in London

London has recently become lit up with festive lights, which always gets me far too excited for Christmas! To truly get into the spirit, Rob & I decided to go all out and have a Christmassy day out in the capital. A little bit early I know, as it's still only November, but the festive season is always over in a flash and I wanted to kick start the excitement!

After lunch in Pizza Express in Kensington sampling the new Christmas menu, which by the way is delicious!, we headed to Harrods because... well, where better to start?! Very few places do Christmas better than Harrods. I hadn't been in well over a year and it was just as magical as I'd remembered. Christmas trees everywhere, Christmas music playing and rooms upon rooms of beautiful furniture, ornaments, expensive gadgets, beauty counters, food halls and of course, the famous Christmas Shop.

 

They say there are two kinds of people when it comes to Christmas decorations appearing in shops: those who get ridiculously excited and those who moan about it. I'm most definitely the first! So stood in the Harrods Christmas Shop surrounded by rows and rows of glittery baubles, sparkly stars, twinkling fairy-lights and majestically decorated trees, I was in Christmas heaven. It's a real winter wonderland! My plan had been to choose some baubles, or rather, one singular bauble. I thought it would be nice to start an annual tradition of choosing a special bauble at Harrods to add to our decoration collection, but actually when it came to choosing just one, I found it too difficult! Maybe it's just me but I think that baubles on their own can look quite tacky, I think they look much better when there's lots of them. After a while of being rather indecisive Rob had to drag me away... 

But not before we enjoyed an obligatory visit to Ladurée and to the ice-cream parlour...

Oh Harrods, I love you!

Next on our list was Regent Street, so we got the tube a few stops up to Piccadilly and walked from there. Regent Street lights are always a bit hit and miss with me, they're usually themed around a kids' film. This year's is the new Night at The Museum film featuring Robin Williams and Ben Stiller, which I can't quite understand because I'm not sure why this resembles Christmas what so ever, but there we go...! Never the less, with all it's sparkling lights and Christmas trees in shop windows, Regent Street is looking as spectacular as ever. For those of you not from London - Regent Street is one of London's most iconic shopping streets with designer shops galore, I guess it's like London's Fifth Ave.

Then we headed to one of my favourite shops in the world: Liberty. Known best for it's floral prints, Liberty is the most incredible department store set in a beautiful, Tudor building with four floors full of clothes, fresh flowers, gifts, haberdashery, furniture, homeware and jewellery. Like Harrods, Liberty's Christmas shop (on the fourth floor) is always dazzling. This year, the ceilings are adorned with fairy-lights with bronze coins hanging from the old Tudor beams and hundreds and hundreds of baubles have been neatly sorted into colour coordinated sections. It's so magical, definitely worth a visit if you're planning some Christmas shopping in the capital.

I always love the floral displays outside Liberty, the flowers are so beautiful all year round.

And then we popped round the corner and wandered along Carnaby Street which year after year has some of the coolest Christmas lights around. Carnaby Street has been famous since The Beatles era, it used to be THE place to pick up your new pair of flares in the 60s. These days I think it's a little overrated with it's expensive shops and overpriced cafes, but it does has a quaint little charm. This year the Christmas lights are music themed, with huge lit-up red headphones.. pretty cool! 

We had such a fun day and totally nailed some of our Christmas shopping which is always a good feeling. It's tiring though!! We walked and walked and walked and walked. And then we fell asleep on the bus home...! I love London at this time of year, I always fall in love with the city all over again and I feel so lucky to have all of this on my doorstep. I've got a big list of places to visit in the capital over the festive season so I shall keep you updated on my Christmas adventures!


Lydia xxx