Magical Harrods

For years it has been an ongoing tradition in my family to visit Father Christmas at Harrods. There is something about travelling up to London in December that makes me all tingly inside, all the twinkly lights running down Oxford Street and the general hustle and bustle of the public trying to cram in Christmas shopping before the big day itself.

Harrods lights up Knightsbridge with its simple but effective lighting, rows of warm white light bulbs outlining the beautiful architecture of the building. When you come face to face with it, it takes you a minute or so to absorb it in all its glory. This is the very moment that makes me feel like its Christmas.

Welcomed by the smartly dressed door man we enter the building with a certain feeling that I can’t describe. Its like you suddenly feel you’re the worlds wealthiest person and you develop a certain air and grace about yourself that clearly is buried deep within and bursting to come out. The reality of it is your just a North London cockney lass dangling a Louis Vuitton off your arm which is the most expensive thing you own! Ha ha! Non the less, for that moment you believe you lead the life of riley. The twins are bursting with excitement, they don’t even know what they are about to see or do but they are just excited to be in this magnificent space with all these things going on around them.

The Christmas Grotto is situated on the 4^th floor and very conveniently in the children’s toy section (which does make sense, just damaging for the hubbies pocket.) Before we have even walked up to the grotto entrance we are dealing with tantrums and throwing ourselves across the floor, causing the “I know how you feel” head tilt from some parents, which is then followed by a shocked stare by the new mums who swear their children will not turn out like that! (Ahh Bless…I was there once.)

On the dot we are shown into the magical kingdom by lovely assistants dressed as elf’s. The adults walk through the normal regular door whilst the kiddies got to go through their own entrance (we were extremely jealous!). Sliding down the slide the twins entered a real life snow globe, it was like a scene out of the film Frozen. Which was most fitting as that was what the actual theme was! Of course this was only the beginning but did the twins want to leave this particular section? Oh no! Did we scream the entire building down and go into an uncontrollable fit in front of every person and their child? Yes! Was there a queue of parents waiting for us to go through to the next section so their own children could experience the snow globe? Yep! Did the twins give a Shizzle? Nope! After a lot of sweating and trying to keep my cool, we managed to take (drag) the twins into the next section. I would hate to describe the whole experience and ruin it for all those who are yet to go, but just imagine the film and then visualize yourself standing within it! From snow globes to igloos, strings of lights dangling from the ceiling, cuddly polar bears, large penguins and beautiful furry rugs for all of us to sit on. Every elf was child friendly, and helped you if they could see you were in a tantrum situation. They danced and sang to distract them from certain objects that they didn’t want to let go of and share with the others, and they individually walked us to the most important section of the whole experience…Father Christmas. Seeing Ali and Alize’s face when walking in to see the main man himself was a moment I will never forget. The belief on their faces was unbelievable, it bought a whole rush of emotions back to me from my own childhood. Why do we stop believing in him? Father Christmas was kind, jolly and wonderful with my children. When booking your experience with Harrods you are asked to answer all sorts of questions regarding the kids. What their names were and what they achieved within the year. So when we walked in he welcomed both of them personally, congratulated them on their individual achievements and asked what they wanted for Christmas which Alize replied “I don’t know!” The one time she said something in context, I actually wanted to scream like a mad woman! Of course they didn’t sit still and pose for the photograph! Don’t be silly! My children, do something that mummy wants them to do? Nahhh never! No I didn’t make the poor elf take 8 pictures until they looked (they never looked!) In the end we settled with the best pic, which was mummy and daddy looking at the camera and the twins looking left and right! Oh well its a memory eh? I’m fine with it…seriously I’m over it!

The magic this season brings to our children’s lives is worth every mince pie you have to eat, footsteps you have to draw and tickets that you buy in September! Harrods’ Father Christmas was the only grotto I went to when I was a child, it was the best then and is the best now. For as long as I can keep the magic alive in my house and we are still able, we will take them to live this belief year after year. We all know that the magic fades one day and they will rather be skating with their friends than even standing next to us, let alone seeing Santa.

If there is one thing you do next September sign up to the Harrods reward card and book your space for next year.

To all the parents and guardian’s reading this…keep the magic alive for your children, if you believe it so will they.

Ho ho ho Merry Christmas

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