This was our first Christmas in England and we loved the buzz of festive activities! It seemed that a lot of the larger towns had their own Christmas Markets or some sort of holiday activities.
Birmingham Christmas Market
We traveled to Birmingham early on in the season with some friends for our first Christmas Market experience. Birmingham is twinned with Frankfurt, Germany so this was a German Christmas Market.
We got there early which was the right move since it progressively got more crowded. The food stands had a lot of variety ranging from 1/2 meter sausages, pretzel sandwiches, apple strudel, potato pancakes, and of course, gluhwein.
We tried a few different flavors of gluhwein (apple, cherry, blueberry, and regular) and walked around to the little stands. The stands repeated which meant it wasn’t insanely crowded or hard to get served. We loved how close this market was (we chose to drive, but could have taken the train) and the many yummy food and drink options they had. We had a great time kicking off the holiday season spent outside with friends, sampling the different foods while listening to the Christmas music.
Bath Christmas Market
A few weeks later, we traveled to Bath for their Christmas Markets. We went on a Saturday and the markets were considerably larger and more crowded than Birmingham.
They had a wider variety of stalls compared to Birmingham, but I enjoyed the food options more in Birmingham. The setting was beautiful with the Christmas lights and market booths set up around the Bath Abbey. The carol singers on the steps of the Abbey was so festive! It was a beautiful day to just walk around the markets with Brad and friends.
I would definitely go back to Bath to explore outside of the Christmas Markets and would try to go back to the Christmas Markets here during the week when it would be considerably less busy.
Blenheim Palace lights
In the US, we loved going to Meadowlark Gardens holiday lights and when we saw Blenheim Palace was doing a lights display, we needed to check it out. We went midweek, but it was still pretty crowded since the schools were all on break.
The Palace was beautifully lit at night and were decorated with trees with white lights. The pathway was lined with snowflake lights and the rose garden was full of lamps with a big phoenix in the center.
We followed to path down to the waterfall and then along the lake, through the lit tunnel which lead to Santa (or Father Christmas).
We enjoyed mini mince pies we got from The Milk Shed, one of our favorite cafes. Blenheim was a fun, festive way to get into the holiday spirit, but I think I like the Meadowlark Gardens lights a little more. I was glad we went, but don’t feel we need to go every year.
Panto
Pantomimes (or Pantos) are a Christmas tradition in Britain. There are many different options and we found Snow White & Other Tales from Brothers Grimm playing at the Creation Theatre in Oxford.
We went with some friends and took the bus into Oxford, which is definitely way easier than driving and finding parking. We grabbed dinner beforehand along with some yummy cookies from the Oxford Covered Market. Having never been to the theater, we weren’t sure if seats on the floor or in the balcony would be better. We had seats around small tables on the floor and it worked out well. The show was really fun and included a little audience participation. Pantos will definitely be a tradition for us during our time in England. And we look forward to exploring Oxford more!
On Your Right 