Circus Christmas Lights...

"You want to display, your charms, on this bright night
You want to display, your charms, over these circus christmas lights"

Deacon Blue, Glasgow and Christmas. Perfect combination!!

Glasgow is a fantastic place at Christmas. But it truly comes alive when the sun dips down and the lights come up. Welcome to Glasgow "The Night"...



The sun just going down behind a Buchanan Street full of Christmas shoppers. The Christmas lights on and the Tron Church in Nelson Mandela place all lit up. If you are a regular reader of this blog then you will know how much I love this building. Probably my favourite in all of Glasgow. And all lit up on a Christmas night? Perfect.

And these photos are probably most people's favourite Christmas scene in Glasgow. The curtain of stars hung over Royal Exchange Square. Often wonder why they don't just leave these here all year long as they just make this square so magical.

And couldn't leave our old friend Arthur out of the celebrations!! Merry Christmas Arthur!!

Now back into George Square again. Two things in Glasgow were Christmas for me as a child. The front window in Lewis' in Argyll Street and the Christmas Lights in George Square. Lewis' may be gone but the George Square lights have never been brighter!!

In my first ever tour on this blog I talked about a UFO landing in George Square. Seems it has finally happened!! Actually this is what happens when you play about with buttons on your camera you don't understand!! But I liked this photo anyway!!

The massive Christmas tree in front of the always stunning City Chambers.

Night skating. What REM do in the winter perhaps when the water is frozen?

The helter skelter and carousel really come to life when all lit up!! Circus Christmas lights!!

A finally the very centre of Glasgow. The Sir Walter Scott column in the middle of George Square all lit up. I love Christmas in Glasgow.
Sending a Merry Christmas from Glasgow to wherever in the world you are reading this!!

Be well, be happy!!

Snow Mean City

It's Christmas time!!

And we are having a white Christmas!!
And not like the ones I used to know. This one is much better than any snow I remember at Christmas!!
Ok... apart from the transport chaos.
But there is something magical about snow at Christmas so finished up at work yesterday afternoon (23rd) and headed into Glasgow to see what I could see.



First photo I just liked as a contrast to the photo of the "Big Heids" I posted in the summer.
Look at all that snow!!

Into the Buchanan Galleries car park. And looking out from level 9 across the abandoned level 8 covered in snow and across the rooftops of Glasgow.

And then down into George Square. Once again I liked the contrast between this and the summer shots of the City Chambers when this blog began back in May.

I remember watching Planet Earth on tv and seeing them waiting for a shot of the Snow Leopard. Well in Glasgow we have Snow Lions!!

Skating in the square. Now a regular feature of the winter festival in Glasgow is the ice rink in George Square. This time around the Sir Walter Scott column.

More skating with the City Chambers looking stunning in the background as always. Rain, Snow, Sun it is always a beautiful building. And in Glasgow rain, sun and snow can be one afternoon!!

Has been really cold these lasts few days and it seems that a colony of penguins have moved into Glasgow. Was so cold yesterday that this one was actually asking me if he could borrow my scarf!!

Christmas time also means that the fair has come to town. Once again just fantastic to see everyone having fun in the square. I had spent so much time walking through here this year and seen so many aspects of this unique part of Glasgow. It really is the heart of the city.

Heading out of Gerorge Square now and wanted to pay a visit to an old friend. Arthur and Copenhagen in Royal Exchange Square. And there was the cone. And the snow.

Round onto Buchanan Street and was sad to see Borders had finally closed. As I covered in a previous post about Buchanan Street this was on the list of one of the best book shops in the world. Was sad to see it gone. This blog was started when I got notice of redundancy this year so wishing good luck to all the staff affected by this and hope to see something new here in the new year.

But sad thoughts were put aside for a while once I wandered further up Buchanan Street and heard the happy sound of Jiggle Bells being played on the accordian. It was the accordian lady I had taken a photo of in one of my first posts!!
http://glasgowtheday.blogspot.com/2009/06/street-theatre.html

I don't know her name or anything about her yet feels like meeting an old friend whenever I see her in Buchanan Street.

Hope you enjoyed this quick photo tour of Glasgow at Christmas. Especially for any ex-pats out there missing the old town.

Wherever you are in the world this Christmas...

Be well, be happy!!