I was struggling to find my Christmas spirit, so we headed into the heart of Edinburgh to see how the place had been decorated this year. I hoped that the bright lights and smiling faces would jump start my festive feeling and here are a few of the shots I took. These are in and around the Christmas Market in Edinburgh’s Princess Street Gardens. Taking night shots isn’t something I have done much of, but I like the slightly blurry way some of the shots came out. It was incredibly busy, I think they haven’t laid it out quite so well this year and so there are lots of bottlenecks as you walk through. This was rather frustrating at times, and reduced the photo opportunities considerably! This shot is taken from the Eastern gate of the gardens looking across Waverley train Station to the beautiful New Balmoral on the corner of the Bridges and Princess Street.
This shot was taken looking up The Mound, from the edge of the National Gallery. The swept over Christmas tree made me smile, a casualty of the storm which blew through Britain last week, but it managed to hold on. The tree is a yearly gift from the people of Bergen in Norway, and it marks the special friendship between the two countries which was forged during the Second World War. When Norway fell in 1940, there were over 7,000 Norwegians based in Scotland, fighting alongside the Scottish regiments, known as the Norwegian Brigade. It’s a lovely tradition I think, so thank you Norway for our lovely tree.
This is one of hundreds of wooden stalls in the European Market, selling food, drink, crafts and Christmas decorations. As you wander around in the cool night air, a wild array of delicious scents drift in the air. Around this stall the smell of chocolate was very strong, giving way to coffee, and then the spices of mulled wine as we moved among the offerings.
This stall filled the air with the wonderful scents of a traditional Christmas, dried orange, cloves and cinnamon. The fruits and spices were woven into beautiful and colourful heart shaped wreaths. It reminded me of Christmas past, when I would sit with my grandmother covering oranges with cloves, and the sweet scent would linger on my hands for days.
This is the ice rink, filled with children and adults alike, whose eyes were wild with excitement and fear, depending on their blade skills. This year it’s over looked by Edinburgh’s famous department store Jenners, which you can see in the background, but I preferred it placed lower down in the heart of the gardens. It gave a lovely view from above of all the fun on the ice, and was far less crowed around its sides.
Finally here are some magical trees of light, forming a dazzling avenue through the shops which lead from St Andrews. Square towards St James shopping mall, and the bus station. I thought it was beautiful, like a fairy tale wood, and it left me feeling full of Christmas wonder. I will post more Edinburgh Christmas shots over the next couple of weeks, so I hope you enjoyed the wee taste.
breathofgreenair 
Good Question! “Species Extinct & Collectors?”
Anthony
You asked were do I live. On the other side. Live in MA. Winthrop, MA 02152 Near Logan Airport…Boston you may e-mail if you wish at tevangelista13@comcast.net
You are surely a interesting lady..
Anthony “Swan Light” when I first looked at it reminds me of “Swan Lake”
So lovely. My favorite time of year in my favorite city. I envy you at this moment! 😉
Well much as I love Edinburgh too, I’m wishing for some crisp cold weather….it’s too warm and grey for my liking at the moment. I do like my winters cold and bright!
Glad you’ve found some old fashioned Christmas feeling Seonaid ! Edinburgh does look rather nice ! I love Christmas markets with all those spicy smells mmmm
Lovely shots .. I seem to be all about blurry at the moment at night Lol it takes much more work than I thought 😉
I agree, night shots it turns out are quite hard…even with my wonderful camera 🙂
I’m trying to love the blurr!
The smells in the market were wonderful, and scent somehow is the sense which can evoke memories the fastest for me.
Your photos of this fabulous market are festive and whimsical. I love them. I sure wish I could be there for the holidays! 🙂
Thank you, technically they’re not impressive, but hopefully they caught the spirit, and I love your adjective whimsical…..that made me smile 🙂
I love those trees of light! Glad you found Christmas!!
That was my favourite discovery too. It was like walking through a magical forest, and the trees were reflected in the windows too so there were lots of sparkles 🙂
Looks like fun and so festive too.
It definitely helped to kick start the festive spirit Fi.
I prefer the ice rink down in the Gardens as well – it seemed more magical having that distance from the main thrust of the action, with the skaters somehow looking more elegant and olde-world from above. Lovely pix of course. I took a few but I kept nearly breaking my ankle on the slightly raised steps just where one didn’t expect them. Mr G must have been keeping a good eye on you!
I know, I wonder why they moved the rink…..and those shallow steps were a nightmare in the crowds. I loved the Scottish Food Market, there was so much temptation! I’ll look forward to seeing your shots Kellie 🙂
These are super Seonaid and I love the fragrance you have evoked.
There were some delicious smells in the air……and over at the Scottish Food Market it was positively mouthwatering……yummy curries and steak burgers …….mmmm
What a beautiful, fun, and special Christmas market! Great photos, Seonaid!
Thanks Amy, I suspect that a tripod might have helped, but it was so busy that I couldn’t have used it 🙂
So pretty! I’m looking forward to seeing your next posts in this series. 🙂
Thank you, there will be more over the next couple of weeks….so watch this space 🙂
How nice. Leave it to an old European city to do things right. Here in the US one rarely, if ever, is able to enjoy such traditional displays and events. When things are done up here for the Holidays the focus is almost always commercial. I didn’t see any snow but given that folks were ice skating I assume that temperatures were right around freezing (but I didn’t see many hats on folks walking the streets). Anyway … thanks, as always, for bringing a little bit of Scotland to my Pennsylvania kitchen! D
It’s not all that cold here right now, it warmed up after the big storm last week, and was around 6 degrees on Saturday when I took these shots. Not quite cold enough for hats! I’m always delighted to bring Scotland to Pennsylvania, glad you enjoyed the traditional fun. There is also plenty of consumerism in the shops here, but I’m not very interested in all that….I like the old fashioned stuff 🙂
I’m with you. There is one nice annual Christmas event not far from us in Wellsboro, Pennsylvana … it’s called the Dickens of a Christmas Celebration and is actually sort of fun. The only difficulty is that Wellsboro is a very small town and the event attracts such a crowd that the streets are packed elbow-to-elbow and parking is tough and all the rest that goes along with any large gathering of people. Anyway … thanks again for bringing me along to another lovely place in your Scotland. D
beautiful!
Thanks 🙂
I’m still getting the hang of night time photos!
seems nice 🙂 will see Christmas Market in Berlin this year 🙂
I’m sure that will be lovely 🙂
It definitely helped me to feel Christmassy!