Kelly Clarkson Christmas Regent Street

                The Christmas season has officially started in London. During this past week I attended the Regent Street Christmas Lights celebration which is supposed to be the largest in London. This celebration of colorful lights and fireworks display signaled the beginning of Christmas. It was November 8^th 2011 and the lights were going to be switched on at 6:15pm.

I arrived to the scene an hour early and there was already a crowd of people in the middle of the street. The crowd seemed happy and enthusiastic as they were listening to the live performances. The performances took place on a stage and there were at least 3 big screen monitors set up around the area. It was a surprise to see a stage and big screen monitors. There were Christmas lights that were interwoven together to look like snowflakes or stars and they were hung across the lamp posts up above the streets which really caught my attention.

The live performances consisted of a choir, a Michael Jackson act, some Matt Cardle songs and Kelly Clarkson. The choir sang carols that made the crowd want to sing along. The Michael Jackson act performed a solo of Billy Jean and a group performance of Man In the Mirror which were both were pretty good but I liked the solo piece better. Next was Matt Cardle who won this year’s X Factor and he sang some of his new singles which I enjoyed. Finally Kelly Clarkson was last to perform and in past she was one of my favorite singers so I was really excited for this. Although she only sang two songs, none of which I have ever heard of before, it was still such a delight to have seen her sing live.

After Kelly Clarkson was finished, it was time to switch on the Christmas lights. I thought it was just going to be a simply flick of a switch and everyone would leave but was I wrong. There was some anticipation building up as the new movie Arthur Christmas was being promoted on the big screen right before the lights were to be switched on. Once that was over with, more anticipation was built as we had to slowly count down from 10 seconds which felt more like 20 seconds for me as I just wanted to see the lights already.

            The wait was well worth it as the beautiful Christmas lights lit up the streets and the fireworks on the roofs of the four surrounding buildings were being fired wildly into the night sky. I could not help but stare continuously into the sky for 10 minutes with my head tilted way back, trying to capture this magnificent display of fireworks with the limit of my peripheral sight.  

This is one of the many treats that London has to offer, close up fireworks, live music performances and an early Christmas all wrapped up into one night.  

Kenny Lee