It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, December is certainly the month for Christmas fun!

City Hall decorated for the holidays and with the Continental Market in front.

Belfast is pretty similar to what I've experienced in the U.S. in terms of the pre-Christmas buildup. The opener of the season is a little earlier in Belfast than the U.S. because there is no Thanksgiving and Santa lives in a 'Grotto' that the kids visit and mail their letters to. But, just as in the States, there is lots of shopping! Interestingly, much of it appears to be in the City Centre rather than suburban malls (we, of course, love this idea). The City has a 'Continental Market' on the City Hall grounds that is quite fun - concerts, a carousel, gifts, food and drink (including mulled wine and beer tents). 

Watson's favorite food at the Continental Market
Bavarian mini-pancakes with chocolate sauce and whipped cream toppings

Watson on the Continental Market's carousel

There were gobs of people wandering around the City Centre shops and malls - here's a map showing you what the City Centre looks like: http://goo.gl/maps/03uRu. The markers are showing City Hall, a couple of malls in City Centre, and St George's Market which is the large farmer's market that is open on weekends. That whole area is full of pedestrians, especially on the weekends building up to Christmas. 

Most people seem to have at least one Christmas tree in their house, in fact, some have more than one, like Grace's family. It seems that fewer people decorate their yards, but the city and businesses decorate the outside with lights like those in the U.S. do. It sounds like there are even more Christmas parties to attend here than in the States - many people have an event every Friday and Saturday night in late November and throughout December. And, workplaces have big Christmas shin-digs. We didn't attend the QUB GAP party because it was the night before we flew to the U.S. But, we did go to our neighbor's holiday gathering that evening for an hour - Jane and Alan hosted (kids Nora 3.5 and Robbie 1) with games for the kids and mulled wine for the adults. Watson also made a Christmas scene at Jumping Clay, and we celebrated with Bob and Kath the weekend before we left - they had us overnight, we helped decorate their tree, and then Jubin and I went for our first date since July! We had dinner at the Balloo House (http://www.ballooinns.com/balloo-house/about), which was lovely. 

Some wrestling at Bob and Kath's... 

Fun decorating the Christmas tree!

Belfast schools are closed for approximately the same amount of time and during the same dates as in the U.S. Watson's school had a Christmas play, a traditional nativity play. Most of his class was part of the chorus. Here are some pix from that:

Watson's favorite teacher - Mrs Butler

 

And, of course, Watson wrote his Christmas letter to Santa, just as he would have in the U.S. We gave it to Jerry, our neighbor across the street who works in City Centre and he put it in the special mailbox to the North Pole at the City Hall. Then, a few or so later, Watson got his reply!

In case you cannot read that, he asked for  a water gun (he and the neighborhood girls love to have
water fights), some Jumping Clay (kind of like Play Doh but way better), and a yoga ball. 

About 2 weeks before Christmas, Watson got a gift from Mum and Dad - the very 1st weekend we lived in Belfast, Watson noticed that there was a Build A Bear Workshop in the Victoria Mall in City Centre and has been asking to build a bear ever since. So, Jubin said "for Christmas" and I took him there on a Dec weekday afternoon after school (have heard there are LONG lines on weekends) for fun. Here is a picture of him with his bear, Rose. She plays Rudolph and has Christmas clothing. For all of our parent friends reading this blog...be glad that there isn't a Build A Bear in Lansing!