Bencard's Bites: London has become one of Europe's great Christmas cities

Saturday, 15 December 2018

London has become one of Europe's great Christmas cities

London decorations have come a long way

My first Christmas season in London was a bitter disappointment. It was 1994, and like most Americans I'd grown up on a diet of English Christmas fantasies. Carolers, wassail, Victorian Christmas villages, Ebeneezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim ... it was as if all that was best at Christmas time came to us direct from Britain. I could hardly contain my excitement as the end of the year approached. If Christmas was a big deal in the USA, how much better would it be in the Mother Country?

Reality was crushing. Nobody decorated the exterior of their homes. No tradition of Christmas baking or cookie exchange. People swapped Christmas cards but only signed their names. No Christmas letters with chatty updates and no return addresses on envelopes. (How the hell was one supposed to do the annual address book update?) Christmas panto was inexplicable and in total contrast to the historic elegance I'd been expected of my English friends, though did get more amusing once one learned the routines and learned that it was all better when drunk.

Fortnum & Mason: Once and present store window champs

My first "Christmas Dinner" was a shock. The Brits lay on what Americans think of as Thanksgiving dinner for Christmas and most of the parties leading up to it. But because they only prepare turkey once a year they tend to overcook it; then wrap themselves in a masochistic pride as they exclaim how they hate the bird but suffer it once a year in order to be festive. What passed for stuffing was a strange amalgamation of finely-ground bread crumbs squashed into a ball; it was masticating cardboard. Even worse was some sort of gluey, oddly-spiced paste called bread sauce. Overall, food had already come a long way in England in the 1990s, but Christmas dinner was (and often still is) a throwback to days of culinary embarrassment.

The office party

Mayfair

London's Christmas store windows made an effort, but generally they were just advertising what was on sale: none of the dramatic, story-telling scenes that made windows at Marshall Field's or Saks Fifth Avenue reason for a road trip. Municipal decorations could only be called average in the American mind. Oxford Street was the only place in London that seemed to make a real effort, but the commercial sponsorship (often by someone launching a holiday film) seemed horribly tacky to me. And yet that adjective was most often used by the English in reaction to my Christmas jumpers. Spectacularly down-market! How horribly American! By the turn of the century I'd given them all to charity, including a rather magnificent cardigan embroidered with sledding polar bears dressed in Santa suits.

Giving it the "full American"

Certain things were better. Choirs performing the classical repertoire in church services delivered to a standard, and within architectural settings, that made Americans drool with envy. There was a surprising tradition of company-funded Christmas parties, often involving formalwear and glamorous venues. Mince pies can be tasty. (Though if, as most Americans do, you think fruit cake is disgusting, you may find English Christmas pudding even worse.) Mummers' plays and morris dancers in the English countryside delivered the old-world tradition I was looking for. But generally, as the last century drew to its end, I was relieved to get on a plane as December waned so I could return to proper celebrations Stateside.

Elegant Piccadilly Arcade

How things have changed. Christmas jumpers are de rigueur. European-style Christmas markets have swept across the country, while every town centre seems to have its own pop-up ice rink with festive music and hot drinks. Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park has its own carnival midway and draws visitors from abroad. Cards remain anodyne and address-less, and the horror of
the Christmas dinner hasn't improved much, but Christmas lights now adorn a hefty percentage of homes. Most striking are the municipal decorations. London, once at the bottom of the league tables for decking its December halls, is now one of the best of the European capitals to drink in festive cheer.

It's not just stores that have upped their game. Various shopping districts have gone for their own looks to differentiate areas. From peacock features and chandeliers along Bond Street to the snowflakes of Seven Dials to the remarkable flying angels flying to and from Piccadilly Circus, walking around central London on a December evening has become a joy.

The now famous flying angels

In most cases, I regret how American the UK is becoming with each passing year. But when it comes to Christmas, I'm glad my homeland has corrupted local tradition. Christmas 2018 runs rings around those gloomy days of 1994. Now, if only we could get people to start brining their turkeys...