I had only one piece of shortbread during the entire holiday season in Edinburgh. Only one…..In Scotland!! Shocking and disappointing as this was, there was plenty of magic in Edinburgh’s festive season events to make up for it.
Each year, the city of Edinburgh turns on the Christmas cheer, drawing tourists in from around the world with the strange and wonderful. This includes: an ice rink surrounded by green grass and an open air water park; a giant neon lit Ferris wheel and amusement park at the foot of the iconic and historic Scott Monument; a German market; a parade of fire; and the awe-inspiring combination of tack and charm that is the Panto. All of this then culminates with arguably the best New Year’s fireworks in the world.
I began to feel the warmth of the holiday season in earnest when I went into town with my friend Louise to do some Christmas shopping. We had lunch at Henderson’s on Hanover Street – a favourite family run vegetarian restaurant that has been around since the 60’s. With our bellies warmed with good homemade soup and bread, we set off shopping. We sampled every hand cream on offer at Crabtree and Evelyn, bought Christmas craft supplies, oohed and ahhed at a little boutique selling local jewellery and gifts, and visited the haberdashery at John Lewis to pick up the yarn needed for my various Christmas knit projects. We ended with a visit to Armstrong’s, a long-standing second-hand clothing shop in the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh, where I was very excited to discover a whole wall of women’s second-hand cashmere sweaters – a whole wall! I bought a sweater and Louise bought a funky blue velvet jacket. A good, cheery day.
Another pre-Christmas trip into Edinburgh with my friend Margaret to explore the German Market also contributed to my pre-Christmas festive mood. Most people go to the German Market for a mug of warmed german wine, but we were beside ourselves with glee to discover a vendor selling Danish Hotdogs – complete with sweet pickles and the little fried crispy onions – Heaven! We then had fun together shopping for the wee ones in our lives at Jenner’s toy shop, which is one of the cornerstone department stores of Prince’s Street, Edinburgh’s primary shopping strip. Carried away with the festive atmosphere surrounding the Market and the amusement park at the Scott Monument, both Margaret and I went a little snap happy with our cameras. Here are some of my photos from that day(see slide show at the bottom for more photos):


Finally, Christmas Eve was upon us. Finlay’s family began to arrive which set Northfield House into a bustle of festive activity. There was food to cook, and a tree, as well as the rest of the house to decorate with candles, holly, ivy and sprays of yew branches. I also made decorative hearts out of cranberries and wire, and Gisela, Finlay’s lovely sister, made a beautiful wreath. A traditional Scottish fish pie dinner with some gift opening in the evening, and the lighting of the candles on the tree (Finlay’s mother is Dutch) marked the official start of Christmas at Northfield House.

Christmas Day was filled with more of the same, but culminated in a mid-day Christmas feast of roast chicken and ham and…Cumberland Sauce – Oh! Cumberland Sauce, how I love you! Feeling satisfied and satiated, we languidly lounged on the couches in the drawing-room, and at the appointed hour we, like every other British household, tuned in to watch the Downton Abbey Christmas Special and joined our voices to the collective sigh of relief heard across the UK, when Matthew and Mary finally agreed to marry.
While Christmas is special, it doesn’t hold a candle to the importance of the New Year in Scotland. Referred to in Scotland as Hogmanay, this is perhaps the most important public holiday in Scotland. As a result, people come from all over the world to celebrate the New Year in Edinburgh. Festivities last all weekend, and run the gamut from a candlelight concerts at St. Giles Cathedral to a plunge in the Firth of Forth called the Loony Dook. There are Ceilidhs and concerts, and the New Year’s Games. All topped off with a massive street party and an incredible fireworks display set off over the spectacular Edinburgh Castle.
My favourite Hogmanay event however, was the Torchlight Parade up to Calton Hill on December 30th. What an incredible sight to see thousands of men, women and children, with torches ablaze, walking up Prince’s Street to the top of Calton Hill. The air was rich with the smell of wax, and the heat and light from so many torches replaced the damp, dark evening with a warming glow. It was incredibly beautiful and such a special way to mark the end of one year and the beginning of a new year. A show of fireworks and the burning of a giant wicker effigy to 2012 greeted the crowd at the top of Calton Hill. I am embarrassed to admit it but it was so beautiful, I actually cried, and these weren’t even the official fireworks!
While the fireworks on New Year’s Eve proper were incredible, and I was so glad I went to see them, it was this quieter and more subdued event of the torchlight parade on Dec. 30th that I will remember. Here are some photos (see slide show at the bottom for more photos):


Memorable would be an understatement in describing the Panto, the current incarnation of the British tradition of the Christmas Pantomime, which dates back to the 1800’s in England, but originated in Ancient Greece. Referred to as “The Panto”, it is a Christmas tradition particularly enjoyed in Scotland. For some reason, Scottish people in particular go batty over what is essentially a kid-friendly drag show musical, filled with boob and fart jokes, midgets, audience participation (“oh, yes it is!” and “he’s behind you”), and frighteningly tacky tributes to other musicals – And I loved it too!
My friend Ryann, a former Broadway employed writer of musicals herself, agreed to attend the Panto with me. We chose the King’s Theatre production of Cinderella which considered the gold standard of all Christmas Pantomimes, promised to be the best Panto available. In this particular version, Cinderella’s stepfather dies after losing everything including his house in a poker game to the evil twin sisters Gobina McPhlegm and Hocktoo McPhlegm

from "The List"
Under the new rule of these two, Cinderella, her drag queen mother, and Buttons their man-servant have a hard time, until Cinderella meets a Prince in the woods and gets help from a Fairy Godmother. The rest of the plot is pretty much what you would expect, but at the same time not like anything you’ve seen before. It is hard to describe the magic of the Panto, and even harder to understand how it possibly could be described as magical, and yet still somehow it is.


And that, my friends, is Christmas in Edinburgh. Happy New Year, Everyone!
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Tags: Armstrong's, Calton Hill, Christmas, Cinderella, Edinburgh, fire festivals, Henderson's, Hogmanay, King's Theatre, New Year, New Year's Eve, Scotland, Shortbread, St Giles' Cathedral, The Panto