The Christmas lights and delights of Liverpool

Town centres can be hell in the run up to Christmas for even the most hardened of adventurers. Bad weather, more shoppers than you can shake a stick at and every shop on every corner trying to wrench your wallet open.

If you’re not actually shopping, however, it can be really fun to have a wander and see the sights.

This year, Liverpool city centre has gone all-out with lots of Christmas lights, German-style markets (fashionable at the moment, I believe), large Christmas trees, a fairground and other such delights. I took my two girls into town late on Saturday afternoon for some Christmassy fun.

After a stop-off at The Entertainer toy shop for the girls to spend some of their pocket money, we started in Liverpool ONE and wowed at the large trees covered in white lights and red baubles. We found ourselves unable to walk past the chocolate fountain in the window of the Thorntons café, so we stopped off to get the girls a chocolate shot each. Yum!

We then moved on to the rather well-publicised giant Christmas tree made of large hearts with lighting that changes colour. The girls just loved it!

By this point, the rain was starting to coming down, which made for great reflections of the tree on the pavement. I was also really grateful for my weather-sealed Fujifilm camera and lens. Phew!

We then wandered on through to see the oversized reindeer made of lights, and then onto Church Street where we found another large Christmas tree, more Christmas lights, snowflakes being projected onto the walls of the buildings, a traditional nativity scene and some market stalls.

Treat number two was a few sweets from the (massively overpriced) pick-and-mix stall. I drew the line at a £5 hot dog from the bratwurst stall, however …

There’s more to see in town than we managed in just a couple of hours – there’s a lot going on down at the Albert Docks, for instance. However, on this particular day it was time for home. It was getting near to dinner time and the rain was unrelenting. Treat number three: a taxi home.

We had a really fun afternoon, and it was a great opportunity to do a bit of street photography, too. All those wonderful lights and people and reflections made for a lovely photography session.