The London On The Ground Advent Calendar
- London On The Ground
- Dec 24, 2025
- 6 min read
A London-related anniversary with a Christmas connection for every day from 1-24 December.
If you have been following my social media, you may already have seen my daily series from
the start of December to Christmas Eve. This blog post draws together all 24 entries in the London On The Ground London Advent Calendar.
My walking tour A Christmas Carol in the City of London looks at how Dickens' well loved story still influences the way Christmas is celebrated today and also covers other Yuletide themes. It will have its next outing on Monday 29 December at 2.30pm.
1 December: A Study in Scarlet, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, appeared in 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual (a publication originally established in 1860 by Samuel Orchart Beeton, husband of Isabella Beeton of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management fame).
2 December: St Paul’s Cathedral was consecrated in 1697. However, Sir Christopher Wren's masterpiece was not officially declared complete by Parliament until another very festive date: 25 December 1711.
3 December: Rowland Hill was born in 1795. He introduced the Uniform Penny Post in 1840, which helped to popularise Christmas cards when they were produced commercially from 1843 (see also 17 December).
4 December: the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree was lit up at 6pm on this day in 2025. It has been an annual gift from Norway since 1947, although the first Norwegian tree appeared in the Square in 1942, erected by Norwegian commandos and British naval intelligence officers (including future James Bond author Ian Fleming) after a dinner at the Savoy Hotel.
5 December: Christina Georgina Rossetti, poet, was born in London in 1830. She wrote the words to the Carol In the Bleak Midwinter as a poem in 1872. This portrait of her was created in 1848 by her brother Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founder member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood group of artists.
6 December: Feast Day of St Nicholas of Myra, who died on this day in 343. Patron saint of children (and of sailors, fishermen, brewers, toymakers and many others), he had a reputation for giving gifts and is the inspiration for Santa Claus. St Nicholas Cole Abbey, a City of London Wren church, is dedicated to him.
7 December: musician/singer/songwriter Greg Lake died in London in 2016. The prog rocker had a UK number two hit in 1975 with I believe in Father Christmas, a protest at the commercialisation of Christmas. Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody kept it from number one in the chart.
8 December: the Agricultural Hall opened in Islington in 1862. Famed for its Christmas shows – including the Smithfield Club Cattle Show, a 'Grand Tournament, Hippodrome & Cirque' and the annual 'World's Fair' - it became the Royal Agricultural Hall in 1885 and is now the Business Design Centre. See The Royal Agricultural Hall and Christmas past for more on this.
9 December: poet John Milton was born on Bread Street in the City of London in 1608. In 1629 he wrote On the Morning of Christ's Nativity. In 1809 William Blake created this watercolour as one of his illustrations for the work.
10 December: 1,081 people were in the longest ever Christmas cracker pulling chain, achieved at The Harrodian School in Barnes in 2015.
11 December: The Muppet Christmas Carol was released in the US in 1992.
Filmed at Shepperton Studios and starring Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge, it was the first Muppet film with a human as the main character. It follows the Dickens story quite closely (except the other characters were Muppets).
12 December: Actor Bill Nighy was born in 1949. The 2003 film Love Actually, which brought him international fame, is mainly set in London and is regarded as a Christmas classic.
13 December: The Blue Peter advent crown was made on-screen for the first time in 1965 by presenter Christopher Trace (using fireproof tinsel). He lit it under the watchful eye of fellow presenter Valerie Singleton.
14 December: John Reith was appointed General Manager of the BBC in 1922. He established the BBC at the heart of the UK's cultural life. Its Christmas Day broadcasts on radio and television remain an important feature of the season for many.
15 December: Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? entered the UK chart at number one in 1984 and stayed there for five weeks.
16 December: Jane Austen was born 250 years ago in 1775. In her 1815 book, Emma, published in London by John Murray, she wrote:
“At Christmas every body invites their friends about them, and people think little of even the worst weather. I was snowed up at a friend’s house once for a week. Nothing could be pleasanter.”
17 December: the design of the first commercial Christmas card was agreed in 1843.
Sir Henry Cole, a civil servant and the first director of the V&A, commissioned artist John Callcott Horsley to create the image and noted its completion in his diary on this day.
18 December: Joseph Grimaldi, comic actor and clown - who helped to raise the popularity of pantomime - was born in London in 1778.
19 December: William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24.
He was dubbed the 'Mince Pie Prime Minister' as, due to his young age, he was not expected to last in the job much longer than Christmastime. His first term lasted until January 1801, just over 17 years (much longer than the UK’s more recent 'Lettuce Prime Minister', Liz Truss).
20 December: In 1941 the General Post Office commissioned a poster designed by George Him and Jan Le Witt, announcing that 20 December was the last Christmas posting date. Wartime conditions meant fewer staff and less space on mail trains, so the date was earlier than it was pre-war. You can see an image of the poster here.
21 December: Thomas Becket was born on Cheapside in London in 1118, 1119 or 1120, depending on the source. He rose to be Lord Chancellor and then Archbishop of Canterbury. After his Christmastime murder in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170 he was made a saint and was venerated as London's second patron saint alongside St Paul.
My photo shows St Thomas and St Paul in a modern stained glass window in St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside.
22 December: all night festival Christmas On Earth Continued was held at Kensington Olympia in 1967. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Move, The Animals, Soft Machine and DJ John Peel were on the bill.
23 December: a picture of Queen Victoria and her family, Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle, was published in The Illustrated London News in 1848. The picture helped to popularise the Christmas tree in the households of ordinary people.
24 December: The first edition of A Christmas Carol sold out on this day in 1843. Charles Dickens' most famous Christmas story, published only 5 days earlier on 19 December 1843, still has a huge influence on attitudes towards Christmas and how it is celebrated.
My walking tour A Christmas Carol in the City of London looks at how Dickens' story influenced the way Christmas is still celebrated today and also covers other Yuletide themes. It will have its next outing on Monday 29 December at 2.30pm.
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks and tours, please click here.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all readers of the London On The Ground Blog!
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