It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas in Leicester

On 1^st and 2^nd December, minced pies, mulled wine, reindeer, ice skating and Christmas music adorned University of Leicester campus.

Every year, the university slowly settles into the Christmas spirit with the gradual emergence of Christmas trees, street poles covered in knitting and Christmas decorations throughout campus. When the calendar finally hits December, it’s time for the annual campus Christmas market, and there’s nothing more lovely than wandering through campus, especially during deadline weeks, and being subtly reminded of Michael Bublé, Fairytale of New York, and the smell of good Christmas food.

Since the market is settled in the heart of campus’ square, it’s easy to go for a pre-planned trip or for a casual drop-by as you wonder by between lectures.

I went to the market on the first evening after a particularly stressful library session and the Christmas music, mulled wine, mince pies, and general good vibes helped to relieve me of a huge amount of my stress. This was then followed by a ‘house Christmas’ involving real homemade Christmas dinner, crackers, Secret Santa, charades and Pictionary and an extremely stressful day turned into an extremely lovely one.

The next day, I spent the whole day in the library working on my (4000 word!) essay and a quick trip to the market for mulled cider over my lunch break was exactly what I needed. There were elves walking round giving out free candy canes, too, so, all in all, a pretty good day.