Welcome back everyone! It is that time of the year to get your Christmas shopping sorted, to see the amazing Christmas lights in London and to see some of the events happening around the city that never sleeps! Also NOW available to book…

WINTER SALES PROMOTION 2026 at the Alhambra Hotel. Further 10% Reduction on most rates from 4th January UNTIL 31st March 2026. Simply enter Code WINTER2026 on the Add promo code section

Check NOW for best rates and availability at www.alhambrahotel.com

Here are my top recommendations of things to do while in London in December:

. Go Skating at Somerset House… Aldwych until 11th January 2026

Somerset House’s annual ice rink pop-up has long been one of the city’s favourite festive traditions, with thousands of Londoners and tourists alike making it part of their celebrations each year, and for good reason. Gliding (or nervously shuffling) around the rink, gazing upon the surrounding Georgian architecture and the courtyard’s magnificent 40ft Christmas tree feels like you’ve skated onto a movie set.

See the Christmas Lights around London…

The best Christmas lights in London 2025:

1. Carnaby Christmas Lights

Dash away from the Oxford Street crowds with a detour into pretty Carnaby Street, which is known for switching it up with imaginative Christmas light displays each year. Last year’s sustainability-led installation ‘Into the Light’ was a bit controversial, with viewers reckoning that the bracingly modern cuboid shapes didn’t have the wow factor of previous efforts. In typical eco-friendly fashion, the same display has been repurposed this year, but using bright neons rather than warm white lights, to bring a welcome splash of colour to the dark winter skies above central London.

2. Oxford Street Christmas Lights

Oxford Street is one of the most iconic areas for London’s Christmas lights. As is now tradition, the lights this year are made from eco-friendly materials, including LED lights and recycled plastic. Featuring over 300,000 individual lights – including 5000 twinkling stars – they shine from 4pm to midnight daily until early January.

3. Bond Street Christmas Lights

Go to Hyde Park Winter Wonderland…until 1st January 2026

Each year, Hyde Park gets transformed from pretty park to a dazzling, snow-covered, Alpine-themed, 350-acre festive funscape. One of the largest Christmas events in the UK, Winter Wonderland returns for its eighteenth year in 2025, and is expected to welcome around 2.5 million visitors over six magical weeks. As you make your way around the space, you’ll find fairground rides, a child-friendly Santa Land (including a Santa’s Grotto, where presents lie in wait) and traditional Christmas markets.

Go to SouthBank Centre Winter Market…until 26th December 2025

Every winter the Southbank Centre turns the banks of the Thames into a frosty wonderland, full of little wooden Alpine-style cabins selling gifts, warming drinks, and snacks. You’ll find huts serving up truffle burgers, duck wraps, mulled wine, Dutch pancakes, churros and many more tasty morsels to nibble on while you look through gifts, jewellery and decorations made by independent craft traders. It is FREE to enter.

And there you are!

From all the team at the Alhambra Hotel that makes it happen and to all our valued guests, wishes of a…

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!