London

Four festive reasons to visit Leicester Square at Christmas

December 9, 2019

Want to feel Christmassy? Here are four festive reasons to visit Leicester Square this Christmas

This is a collaborative post – There are lots of places we love in London, from the Southbank through to the London Transport Museum and the Florence Nightingale Museum.

But London at Christmas is the best London, don’t you agree? I love the way it looks at the way it feels, with all the lights and the air of anticipation.

Florence and I were invited to spend a day checking out the festive sights of Leicester Square, and it was a lot of fun, so here’s why I’d recommend a visit if you’re in London this Christmas.

It’ll make you feel really festive: Leicester Square isn’t somewhere I’d automatically think of to visit, or somewhere I’d have thought would be that festive. However…it’s had a big seasonal makeover and now looks beautifully Christmassy, with lots of festoon lights strung up around the square and glitterly decorations in all the trees.

See?

The middle of the square has been transformed into a Christmas market, with mini stalls – we liked the London-themed Christmas decorations – food stalls and bars.

You can even visit the big man himself; parents take note, a Santa visit is £10 and you don’t have to pre-book, which could be very handy when lots of other places have been fully booked since the summer.

We had a hot chocolate and people-watched (plus we may have had a dance to the Christmas music).

More info on the Christmas Market in Leicester Square is here.

It’s a perfect place to check out the Christmas film of the year: Have you seen Frozen 2 yet? (spoiler: it’s SO GOOD!) We watched it at the Cineworld which is one of the big cinemas right on the square.

I always think there’s something that little bit more special about seeing films at Leicester Square, isn’t there? We also saw it on the Cineworld Super Screen, which has enhanced sound and vision, and it was brilliant. It’s definitely worth upgrading your tickets if you can (more on Cineworld Leicester Square is here).

Coming out of the cinema to the twilight and seeing all the twinkly lights was lovely, too.

Leicester Square is a good place to re-fuel when Christmas shopping: Central London pre-Christmas is always going to be busy, so if you’ve been Christmas shopping or sight-seeing you’ll probably want somewhere to sit down and have a break.

Leicester Square at Christmas - Hard Rock Cafe Piccadilly

We ate lunch at the Hard Rock Café Piccadilly Circus, which is busy and huge, and filled with lots of memorabilia (I spent a lot of time saying ‘LOOK there are Lady Gaga’s boots! LOOK there’s George Michael’s suit!’ and so on).

Leicester Square at Christmas - Hard Rock Cafe London

This isn’t somewhere we’d have thought to eat as a family before, but I was surprised at how child-friendly it – there’s a varied kids menu, children’s food comes on a guitar-shaped plate, the waitresses were lovely.

There’s even a rock-themed kids’ colouring book, where you can colour in the plectrums.

We ate from the festive lunch menu, which is £30 for three courses (we both had…burgers, which were huge and lovely, plus a Christmas brownie).

Find out about Hard Rock Cafe Piccadilly Circus on the Leicester Square website.

You might find a perfect Christmas present: Did you know there’s a massive Lego Store in Leicester Square, as well as the M&M store? At the end of our day we had a nose around the three-storey chocolate super store and found what we think might be the best gift to give someone who has everything – their face printed on M&Ms (find out how to get there here and here).