Great article. I have spent 2 Christmases in London, once in 1984 and once in 2003. Each time was wonderful. I'm glad to know it hasn't changed much.
My husband and I also spent Christmas in 2005 in Dublin which was equally great. Dublin closes up even tighter than London at Christmas. Everything was shut on the day but we had made our Christmas Dinner reservation a couple of weeks before the day at a mid-level hotel, (closed but serving dinner only in their dining room). After our meal we walked around and ended up at The Outhouse (the name is...) Dublin's LGBTQ community center. They have a meal for folks who are alone or don't want to go to relatives, etc. We had seen a poster for it on our walks around Dublin and decided to see if it was still going on. We got there, walked in and had a fabulous time, eating more desserts and meeting some wonderful people. We were treated like old friends and when we left they insisted we take leftovers back to our apartment. We had food for a few days after that. Nothing like the LGBTQ community to make you feel loved over the holidays!
Thank you. This is the best post you have put up in the last several months. I am now trying to talk several family members into meeting up for Christmas in London. Merry Xmas and Happy New Years. Again, thank you for the wonderful photographs and writing. Tom Allin
Dec 26, 2022Liked by Brent Hartinger, Michael Jensen
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ve done just nothing for the holiday this year, and this post and the absolutely wonderful photos are exactly what I needed! Like a cuppa hot tea, with a wee splash of something stronger, warming through and through.
I’ve never done London at Christmas but it felt like being home somehow. Some of the fabulous photos of decorated streets and shops made me feel like I’ve been transported to Diagonal Alley! I expected to see Harry, Ron and Hermione doing a bit of shopping. Perhaps Dumbledore just vanishing around a corner.
And the Muppet Tiny Tim ratings are inspired. This Christmas post gets five Tiny Tim at minimum.
You two are a true treasure - thank you ever so much for sharing your adventures!
Wow, very nice and rare to see a happy couple, kudos, my last thumb up, guys !
Navigating or facing Protestantism, capitalism, and authoritarianism in the wilderness of Nicaragua, I´m like William Wallace in Braveheart shouting freedom, freedumb, freedump !
Merry Christmas ! I celebrate the birth of Jesus, imagining peace. It´s a selfless time where I tend to forgive and try to forget the mundane stuff that wears me down in the thick fog of war.
My used Swiss pocket knife instantly turns into an essential AR 15 and my rusty machete into an existential dilemma between an AK 47 and a Dragunov. Dear God, please forbid any home invaders from visiting or even burglarizing my humble shed in the jungle, only monkeys, snakes, and mosquitoes allowed !!!
This degenerate bizarro is WW3 upon all of us !!! But one just can´t go down without a fight, one´s rocking boat, one´s tough rules ! Imagine us handicapped in third-world countries heavily sanctioned by the US and EU. We´d love to have your first-world problems, I can understand you ! But maybe not, ours, struggling for mere survival, make us realize that slavery was not abolished a century ago, as it´s been bragged about in history textbooks. Evolution is only Evilution, humanity never learns. Darwin is always at it.
Scorch-earth regards from the tropical wilderness in Nicaragua, Central America, so every day I do or live real Safari. Sometimes I feel even overwhelmed by so much nature. No digital currency down here, and hardly any cash. I scrape by close to the Masaya Lagoon and Volcano, dubbed the Gates of Hell, google it. You know, hell, sweet home. Not sweet, really, kind of bittersweet ! My shabby $2 flip-flop Ferrari I walk drives me nuts, which is ludicrous. Yet I´m grateful in this hardcore jungle, for being still alive. Merely breathing is a blessing.
Joy just to breathe ! Life is not a word, it is a sentence. Joy to be able to enJOY it however cruel, bad, or ugly it gets. But who am I, to be this privileged ? I´m just a soldier of Christ, nobly humble cannon fodder, fighting in the first row, bruised and bloodied, one-armed, bringing a breath to the world, still breathing, quite heavily, though, praising the Lord, all in Jesus´ name, to the best of my ability, to my very last breath on the battlefield called LIFE ! For how much longer ? That´s the million dollar question !
Great article. I have spent 2 Christmases in London, once in 1984 and once in 2003. Each time was wonderful. I'm glad to know it hasn't changed much.
My husband and I also spent Christmas in 2005 in Dublin which was equally great. Dublin closes up even tighter than London at Christmas. Everything was shut on the day but we had made our Christmas Dinner reservation a couple of weeks before the day at a mid-level hotel, (closed but serving dinner only in their dining room). After our meal we walked around and ended up at The Outhouse (the name is...) Dublin's LGBTQ community center. They have a meal for folks who are alone or don't want to go to relatives, etc. We had seen a poster for it on our walks around Dublin and decided to see if it was still going on. We got there, walked in and had a fabulous time, eating more desserts and meeting some wonderful people. We were treated like old friends and when we left they insisted we take leftovers back to our apartment. We had food for a few days after that. Nothing like the LGBTQ community to make you feel loved over the holidays!
Merry Christmas! And now I want to spend Christmas in London…
Such fun to read on Christmas Eve . Thanks.🎄🎅🏻
Looks wonderful at Christmastime. Planning to go there in September, maybe we should rethink that! Merry Christmas and all the best in 2023!
Thank you. This is the best post you have put up in the last several months. I am now trying to talk several family members into meeting up for Christmas in London. Merry Xmas and Happy New Years. Again, thank you for the wonderful photographs and writing. Tom Allin
Merry Christmas
It seems I am in the fairytale!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ve done just nothing for the holiday this year, and this post and the absolutely wonderful photos are exactly what I needed! Like a cuppa hot tea, with a wee splash of something stronger, warming through and through.
I’ve never done London at Christmas but it felt like being home somehow. Some of the fabulous photos of decorated streets and shops made me feel like I’ve been transported to Diagonal Alley! I expected to see Harry, Ron and Hermione doing a bit of shopping. Perhaps Dumbledore just vanishing around a corner.
And the Muppet Tiny Tim ratings are inspired. This Christmas post gets five Tiny Tim at minimum.
You two are a true treasure - thank you ever so much for sharing your adventures!
So in that spirit: God bless us, every one!
Thanks for this...i've been fantasizing about Christmas in London.....
I just got a chance to read this and I love every bit of it - these ratings posts always bring me a smile :)
Those are some pretty photos. Merry belated Xmas!
Oh, and do they still have a few roasted chestnut vendors on street corners? Was there in January once and partook of a few.
Wow, very nice and rare to see a happy couple, kudos, my last thumb up, guys !
Navigating or facing Protestantism, capitalism, and authoritarianism in the wilderness of Nicaragua, I´m like William Wallace in Braveheart shouting freedom, freedumb, freedump !
Merry Christmas ! I celebrate the birth of Jesus, imagining peace. It´s a selfless time where I tend to forgive and try to forget the mundane stuff that wears me down in the thick fog of war.
My used Swiss pocket knife instantly turns into an essential AR 15 and my rusty machete into an existential dilemma between an AK 47 and a Dragunov. Dear God, please forbid any home invaders from visiting or even burglarizing my humble shed in the jungle, only monkeys, snakes, and mosquitoes allowed !!!
This degenerate bizarro is WW3 upon all of us !!! But one just can´t go down without a fight, one´s rocking boat, one´s tough rules ! Imagine us handicapped in third-world countries heavily sanctioned by the US and EU. We´d love to have your first-world problems, I can understand you ! But maybe not, ours, struggling for mere survival, make us realize that slavery was not abolished a century ago, as it´s been bragged about in history textbooks. Evolution is only Evilution, humanity never learns. Darwin is always at it.
Scorch-earth regards from the tropical wilderness in Nicaragua, Central America, so every day I do or live real Safari. Sometimes I feel even overwhelmed by so much nature. No digital currency down here, and hardly any cash. I scrape by close to the Masaya Lagoon and Volcano, dubbed the Gates of Hell, google it. You know, hell, sweet home. Not sweet, really, kind of bittersweet ! My shabby $2 flip-flop Ferrari I walk drives me nuts, which is ludicrous. Yet I´m grateful in this hardcore jungle, for being still alive. Merely breathing is a blessing.
Joy just to breathe ! Life is not a word, it is a sentence. Joy to be able to enJOY it however cruel, bad, or ugly it gets. But who am I, to be this privileged ? I´m just a soldier of Christ, nobly humble cannon fodder, fighting in the first row, bruised and bloodied, one-armed, bringing a breath to the world, still breathing, quite heavily, though, praising the Lord, all in Jesus´ name, to the best of my ability, to my very last breath on the battlefield called LIFE ! For how much longer ? That´s the million dollar question !
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