Whether you’re on holiday in the capital, visiting friends or entertaining the family, there are plenty of free activities to keep you busy in London in the run up to Christmas. Here are some ideas that will help you catch some of the festive spirit, without breaking the bank.
Christmas Market on the South Bank
Christmas Markets
The Frost Fair on Bankside commemorates the fairs that took place on the frozen Thames hundreds of years ago. It takes place near the Tate Modern from 12-21 December with 40 arts and crafts stalls, a boating procession on 13 December and a lantern procession of schoolchildren on 14 December. Free. Nearest Tube Blackfriars
The German style South Bank Christmas Market takes place until 21 Dec between the London Eye and the South Bank Centre with 40 wooden chalet stalls selling Christmas gifts and Gluhwein with a carousel for the children. Nearest tube Waterloo or Embankment.
In Hyde Park there’s a Winter Wonderland until 4 January with a German style market of 50 stalls selling gifts and a Christmas Food Market selling stolen, gingerbread and Bavarian hog roast. The Winter Wonderland also includes an outdoor skating rink, giant observation wheel and funfair with a winter theme. Open 10am-10pm daily. Free, but charge for attractions. Nearest tube Hyde Park Corner or Green Park.
Let there be light
At Covent Garden in the old covered vegetable market, now a buzzing retail centre, there’s a Christmas light show with hundreds of coloured light tubes suspended from the Market Building. The tubes disperse patterns of light like falling snow and at certain times of day visitors can take control of the patterns created, creating their own snow storm. Free but charity donation for the interactive experience to Crisis this Christmas. Nearest Tube Covent Garden.
Christmas light installation at Covent Garden
Best for foodies
You can be sure that the food halls of the upmarket stores like Fortnum & Mason and Harrods will be full of Christmas goodies to tempt you. But for all-round experience, you can’t beat the covered Borough Market where there are many stalls and shops selling the best gourmet fare as well as traditional meat, fruit and veg. This is a place where you can get good advice from traders who really care about the produce they are selling. To add to the Christmas spirit, there will be local schools and choirs singing carols in the market through December. Free. Nearest tube London Bridge.
Between 20-23 Dec there’s a Slow Food Market on the South Bank just in time to stock up on all the artizan produced delicacies you might need to celebrate a delicious Christmas in style.
The Painted Hall at Greenwich
Best for families
Take a walk around Greenwich to see the advent windows in a project organised by the local church. Shops, businesses and pubs have created special advent windows on the theme of Hopes and Fears, with a new window opening each day of advent in the run up to Christmas then remaining on display until 5 Jan. You can download a programme, and the walk around all the windows will take about 2 hrs. Free. Arrive by river, train or Docklands light Railway.
Staying in Greenwich, there’s a free family activity day on 14th Dec in the wonderful baroque splendour of The Painted Hall of the Royal Naval College and also in the Queen’s House of the National Maritime Museum. You can make Christmas cards and gifts while listening to Christmas music. Free but £1 contribution for materials.
Learn about Christmas on the Western Front at The Imperial War Museum. On 6, 7, 13 and 14 Dec you can hear an actor in the role of a First World War soldier telling you about the 1914 Christmas Truce and life on the front line. Free. Nearest tube Lambeth North.
Christmas through the ages
The Geffrye Museum is in East London, set in an 18th century Almshouse with each of the rooms decorated and furnished from different ages, from 1600 to the present day. Until 4 January, the rooms are decorated in typical Christmas style of the period, for the Christmas Past exhibition with free workshops and activities for all the family in December. Free. Nearest tube Old St.
Christmas at the Geffrye Museum
Some Christmas music
At Covent Garden Market there are a series of concerts being held in the Market building to entertain you while you shop. On 11 Dec at 6pm you can hear Schlomo and the vocal Orchestra, using only the human voice to reinterpret Christmas carols, on 19 Dec at 6pm you can hear The Choir With No Name, comprised of homeless people and on 22 Dec at 6pm hear Nathan Lee playing the unlikely combination of Flute and Beatbox. Free.
Gather round the Christmas tree to sing carols in Trafalgar square donated every year by Norway to the people of London in gratitude for their support in World War 2. The tree will be lit from 4 Dec and carol singing will take place daily between 8-19 Dec between 5-9pm. Free/ charity donation. Nearest Tube Charing Cross.
Find a Carol service at a Church near you. Although the larger churches and London Cathedrals tend to charge for ticketed carol concerts, most of the smaller ones hold free carol services for their local community, so check the neighborhood you’re in if you’re staying in London over Christmas. Normally Free with a charity collection.
All photos from Heatheronhertravels on Flickr
The Street-Artist known as Banksy returned this month to his home town of Bristol for an exhibition in the Bristol City Museum. And it seems that the whole city is being taken over with street-art fever, for only last month the gilded halls of the Royal Academy of the West of England hosted the best of Bristol’s street-artists in their Crimes of passion exhibition.
There used to be many Banksy pieces around the streets of Bristol, but before he hit the big time the Bristol City Council was only too quick to roller over his works. Now, if they so much bring the whitewash out there’s a public outcry. There are still a handful of major pieces in Bristol if you know where to look – I can walk past two or three on my way to work if I choose.
There’s a burned out ice cream van in the lobby and the jokes are spread around the whole museum so that you have to take a second glance before you work out what’s the original work of art and what’s the Banksy look-alike.
but there are actually several movies set here in the city. For more information you can also visit the 
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