Where should we go for Christmas lights? I have read that Oxford Street has many lights. I have also read on this site that outside lighting at Christmas is considered tacky and tasteless. Is this true?

Just home from London last week and Regent Street in particular was really decked out with lights. Really beautiful. Oxford street itself didn't have any lights up yet. they also have the Trafalgar tree, Covent garden Christmas trees lighted and the most beautiful of all is the 4 story one indoors at the Whitley shopping center in the Bayswater area. All to be enjoyed as I am from a small town here in the US where we don't even have a stop light, (just stop signs) so all those lights are a treat. Enjoy. halfpint

Actually the Oxford St lights are up: they just don't look very Christmassy!

Now, on the matter of outside lighting.

There is a glorious snobbishness among some people here against people putting big Christmas decorations outside their own houses (it's perfectly OK, goes this demented theory, if the lights are put up by the local council or Chamber of Trade).

And as this snobbishness has grown, those lovely people in China have brought down the cost of these 25 foot Rudolphs to the point where you can stuff an entire 100 x 50 lawn with a hundred or so elves and fairies for about the price of a cup of tea.

So we now have a new national hobby: driving round the suburbs pointing at lawn lights and laughing in One's superior way at the ghastly taste of all these oiks.

Fortunately, though, the oiks don't notice. So our suburbs are increasingly full of Father Christmases (NEVER 'Santa') and snowmen and enough strip lights to rival Las Vegas. Which cheers most of up. And also makes the really sad nobs happy, as it gives them even more people to look down at.

Sadly, few visitors get to see any of this, since they don't run to lawns in Bloomsbury or Bayswater, and in Notting Hill One is FAR too grand.

Mrs F and I, of course, are just too superior for all that. A 4ft tree, at 45 degrees over the bay window, with non-flashing white lights, is as ostentatious as we get. We might put a crib in the window this year though, as that would really shock our heathen neighbours.

Flanner
what, no dancing Santa in your garden? How sad.

Not so much lights, but the arcades in Piccadilly (Burlington, Princes, etc...) are beautifully decorated and you may be lucky enough to hear a group of carolers.

The department store windows are another thing to look for. My favorite last year was Fortnum & Mason's.

Also, check out the skating rink at Somerset House.

Yes the Oxford St lights are up this year but they've gone for search lights this year so they don't look very christmas at all

Down here in the East End, they're big on ostentatious outside decorations. One house, on a dark corner not far from me, used to have a flashing sleigh and reindeer 'flying' up wires towards the roof and a human-size Santa outside the front door - whose head followed you round as you walked past.