I found this post on an old thread (2003) and was wondering if anyone could offer some additional information on London Christmas light displays.


"Also, there is a certain neighborhood (Can't remember what now) in which each street competes in having the most beautiful light display... tailored to the common visitors of that street..."

Whoever said that must've been ODing on the sherry trifle. Or forgetting to flame the brandy on the Christmas pud.

We don't do street competitions. In anything

Sounds like the sort of thing travelogues about Chirpy Cockneys invent. And the post you mention is more than second hand: the poster concerned has never been here in winter, but claims the show she saw says "the entire city lights up" Claptrap. There are lots of decorations around. But far more streets don't have them than do.

What does happen in the less genteel suburbs is that some individual families increasingly compete for the most over-the-top external decorations. It's virtually unknown in the central core (though there are two externally decorated houses in the street that runs parallel to London Street, outside Paddington Station). Even the most enthusiastic competitors would hardly use the word "beautiful" for the result. You'd really need a car to visit them painlessly - and if you're American, you'd see far better in any US suburb. Even downtown Hoboken has more of this stuff than practically all of London put together.

Don't believe travelogues. And believe even fewer posters with vague memories of travelogues they can't name.

That post might have been unfairly dismissive.

In the centre - which means the main shopping streets, like Regent Stand Oxford St - lights are sponsored and commissioned separately by each street that does lights. In that sense,I suppose a travelogue producer would say they compete. But they don't.

Hi,

If it IS the commercial light displays that you are looking for, try this website, which has lots of information and links on the subject:

http://www.newwestend.com/christmas/

happy holidays...

They seem to get duller every year, though. Oxford Street seems to have decided to go for searchlights sweeping the sky this year, which I find distinctly un-Christmassy.

Patrick in my opining the Oxford Street 'lights' are the worst EVER. Very disappointing.

I think people here in Northern Ireland are competing for the worst Christmas light displays. I prefer the days when people just put a candle in the window. They just have not figured out how to do nice light displays over here.

Just seen pictures of the guy in Florida with what looks like every single electric Christmas decoration in his front yard. Is he for real and where can I buy shares in the electric company he is using!?

Oh and nobody I know likes the Oxford Street lasers,

While our daughter was out shopping, our son-on-law and grandchildren decorated a tree in front of their home with 1,200 red lights.

Our daughter retaliated by telling the children that Santa puts red lights on the trees of the homes he's already visited so he knows not to come back.

Fortunately, the twinkle in her eyes can be spotted from a mile away.

Very clever, vcl. Sounds like a story you should post in the Reader's Digest! tee hee

I agree, Oxford was pretty dull with the search lights. Regent was at least very bright. The tree in Trafalgar was big but otherwise uninteresting.

Bill