I challenge anyone to find a city that embraces Christmas decorating more than London. Whether it's the lights, festooning Carnaby Street, Savile Row and Regent Street, Annabel's extraordinary façade designs — which must require a serious amount of engineering — or imaginative window displays designed to tempt you in to shop, the capital just does it better, and on a bigger scale, than anyone else.
Here are some of our favourites.
The Royal Arcade was constructed in 1879 and connects Old Bond Street with Albemarle Street. It is the epitome of Victorian design with a saddled glass roof, stucco arches and curved glass window bays.
Original shopkeepers included Mrs Ellen Turner, an artificial florist, and John Latha, a boot maker. Head down today and you'll find ED Meyrowitz Optician, puveyors of handcrafted spectacles for even longer than Country Life has been around for, and George Cleverley, The King's shoemaker who recently collaborated with Hedley Studios on an electric Bentley Blower.
Ralph Lauren's 'Holiday' experience is Sloane Square's biggest-ever brand installation to date.
Directly opposite its bricks-and-mortar store, the peak-Americana brand has built a barn for activities such as wreath-making workshops and cookie decorating, a Ralph's Coffee outpost and a holiday shop.
B-Corp certified Lavender Green Flowers nearly always take the crown for best King's Road Christmas display.
This year's centrepiece is a gilt ferris wheel that gently spins.
As well as flowers and wreaths, the shop is stocking pretty ornaments and trinkets throughout the festive period.
Cartier's Christmas efforts are the jewel in New Bond Street's crown — so much so that people form orderly queues outside to have their photograph taken in front of the shop — and this year is no exception.
The giant scarlet ribbon that once enveloped the building come December has been discarded in favour of two loping panthers — the brand's motif since 1914. (Not entirely incidentally, Louis Cartier, heir to the Cartier maison, nicknamed his lover, Jeanne Toussaint, the 'Petite Panthère for her bold personality and penchant for panther furs. Toussaint later worked for Cartier, rising through the ranks to become director of haute joaillerie.)
Every half hour, from 4.30pm to 10.30pm, the big cats and the towering pile of presents that you can see one of the animals gently pawing at in the photograph above, light up to music.
Burberry's original equestrian knight design — a man in a suit of armour atop a galloping horse — was the winning entry of a public competition to create a new emblem for the brand, in about 1901.
This year, a life-size knight (horse: missing in action) has appeared in Burberry's advertising campaigns, at Claridge's hotel to unveil the Christmas tree designed by chief creative officer Daniel Lee, and in shop windows.
We hope that whoever came up with the clever 'A knight before Christmas' slogan has been given a hefty pay rise.
The question on everyone's lips is: what on earth is the person who comes up with Annabel's otherworldly facade displays on?
There are have been three-dimensional pirate ships, Amazon rainforest tableaus and, now, a set of white and gold gilt doors and a larger-than-life lion — a clear homage to Narnia and the story of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
According to The Glass Magazine, the design is meant to recreate the feeling of returning to childhood and spark imagination.
Fortnum & Mason (F&M) is synonymous with the hamper — and this year they take centre stage in the historic department store's window displays.
F&M first started selling hand-packed wicker baskets, for wealthy travellers, in the mid 1700s. Sir John Franklin took one to Everest, Henry Morton Stanley to Africa, and Howard Carter to Egypt.
And for the fifth consecutive year, the Piccadilly building's façade has been decorated to look like an Advent calendar.
Perhaps the award for the most enchanting displays go to Brunello Cucinelli — who was invited to fill 21 windows at Harrods.
Earlier this year, the Italian designer authored a tale about a very old Italian hamlet, brought back to life by a 'young dreamer' called Philo the Griffin (inspired by his own medieval hamlet hometown of Solomeo) and it is this story that plays out, chapter-by-chapter, window-by-window. It all looks as fantastical as the narrative reads.
However, Signor Cucinelli did not stop there. Inside, he's create an immersive experience comprising two themed pop-up space, video projections and an exclusive-to-Harrods capsule collection.
Best of the rest
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What trees taught me about perfect planting — Alan TitchmarshSense and patience is key to growing healthy trees, as a certain Mr Mackenzie showed a young Alan Titchmarsh
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It'd be crazy to buy this 500-year-old farmhouse just because of its utterly gorgeous Aga — so thank goodness that the rest of this place is also really nicePerry Mill Farm is an immaculate yet characterful four-bedroom dream home in the country at a price that will make city dwellers immediately start Googling 'working from Worcestershire'.
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Farmers of Britain, go forth and grow prawnsA new study has proposed that farmers could start growing king prawns to diversify income streams.
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The golden retriever: The world’s most likeable dog almost didn’t exist at allThey’ve been popping up everywhere this week — on the Tube, at Christmas parties and in the news — so it feels like the perfect moment to talk about the dog breed we’re lucky to have.
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In search of London’s earliest pintEarly houses — pubs open in the early hours to feed and water the market trade — have been a cornerstone of London for centuries. Yet, as Will Hosie finds, they aren’t stuck in the past.
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Aristotle believed they emerged spontaneously from mud, Sigmund Freud dissected thousands of them and they can dive lower than a nuclear submarine — but what is the truth about the eel?It would seem the European eel has a long way to go to win hearts, Laura Parker says of the slippery animal with an unfortunate image problem.
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The Alpine rescue dog built for blizzards, bred by monksAs snow fell across the UK this week, I found myself day-dreaming of St Bernards striding through the Alps — a snow-day dog worth celebrating.
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Better than Ozempic? 50 years of the Brompton bicycleOwen Wilson, James May and most of the middle-aged men and condescending hipsters you know love them. As the iconic folding bike turns 50 Lotte Brundle hops on one with the company's CEO.
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No more froths, no more foams, no more tweezers. Classic dining is making a comeback. Thank godFrom prawn cocktail and Arctic roll to starched tablecloths and ‘nicotine cream’ on the walls, it’s out with the new and in with the old in the restaurant world
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'It is hard to beat the excitement of watching a peregrine you have trained stoop from 1,000ft, going more than 100mph' — the complicated world of falconryA combination of spellbinding sport and profound empathetic connection, falconry–a partnership in which the bird maintains the upper hand–offers a window into ‘the deeper magic’.
