From Winter Wonderland to Harrods, why you should embrace a cheesy London Christmas this year

The unmistakable off-pitch rendition of “Silent Night” by a primary school choir alerted me to my hangover early on a freezing Saturday last month.

Waking up to the nativity-esque scene could mean only one thing: my ever-over-the-top road, which doesn’t even have a primary school, might I add, was having its own Christmas light turn-on event for residents. This much I knew – but the pop-up party of carolers and new technicolour trees had not been on my radar.

With my third year of living in London, and my first as a non-student with “real life” responsibilities, came an out-of-character disdain for Christmas tourist traps; having shunned seasonal cliches I turned to TikTok to find cooler inspiration, only to come up short.

Now that everyone and their cat has a Soho House membership, this seems to be the year where frolics in the countryside as a “frazzled English woman” are trending, alongside steeply priced staycations to match hours away from south west London. Given the price tag, I quickly gave up on my dreams of fleeing London’s palette of greys for quaint market towns to channel my inner Amanda Woods from The Holiday. Instead, I vowed to change my Scrooge-like tune for advent, and stay put for some actual Christmas spirit in my own city.

What followed was a revelation: weeks of cynicism-free festivities on the doorstep of my daily life that I’d been taking for granted.

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With an open mind and forgiving heart, I decided that it was time to get over the post-pandemic Winter Wonderland entry fee – now £7.50 at peak times if you’re late to the hate train – and accept that the Christmas calendar staple is whatever you make it.

Bank breaking? Yes. The kind of fun that’s only possible if you lean into the overpriced pints and bang-average street food? Also yes. But between heart-racing rides, a tent built for belting Christmas tunes and – my kryptonite – pots of chocolate churros, I found myself unexpectedly happy to get tapping with contactless in Hyde Park.

It certainly helped that next up on my anti-Scrooge tour was a completely free event: Carnaby Street’s annual Christmas light turn-on.

Though I’ll admit that my enjoyment of the impressive solar-system “Carnaby Universe” show was…