Reasons to be cheerful: Where (and how) to raise your spirits this Christmas

Family fun: The Snowman at the Peacock Theatre this Christmas
Tristram Kenton

Christmas is just 12 working days away, which means the next couple of weeks are essentially just a festive wind-down – wahay!

So why do things feel ever so slightly depressing? Weeks of grey, miserable rain mean crisp winter wanders have been replaced with soggy scurries to the Tube, and Brexit has somehow successfully managed to get itself into (even) further disarray this week after three big defeats in the Commons.

It’s enough to leave anyone feeling disheartened. But don’t let it get the better of you — even the capital’s gloomiest Scrooge has plenty to look forward to in the final stretch of 2018. From The Snowman at the Peacock Theatre to the grand finale of I’m A Celeb, here are the reasons to be cheerful.

Art therapy

London art exhibitions you have to see in autumn - In pictures

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Who needs to go abroad at this time of year when the world comes to London?

The best way to get a mini grand tour of the edited highlights of European architecture is at the V&A’s splendidly refurbished cast courts, where you can go from casts of Michelangelo’s David to Trajan’s Column (in two halves) in a few feet and get a much better view of them than you could in situ.

Or at the Royal Academy — quick, it finishes next Monday — there’s Oceania, a wonderful exploration of the art and culture of the Pacific, to mark the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook’s first voyage.

Back in time, the Assyrian bas reliefs — war scenes and lion hunts — from the British Museum’s permanent collection are now on exhibition after being out of view for a decade. It’s a poignant reminder of the glories of the architecture of Nineveh and Nimrud, much of which was destroyed in 2014 by Islamic State. Bastards.

For full immersion in almost hallucinatory beauty, you can’t do better than the Edward Burne-Jones exhibition at Tate Britain, including the lovely Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty) panels.

Melanie McDonagh, Senior Writer

Escape to stage and screen

December's best theatre shows - in pictures

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Last week this paper ran our guide to the best Christmas shows in town, but Scrooges can be happy too, for there are lots of non-festive productions to get excited about. Black Panther’s breakout star Letitia Wright joins Paapa Essiedu in Danai Gurira’s play The Convert at the Young Vic from December 7; Natasha Gordon’s Evening Standard Theatre Award-winning show Nine Night comes to the West End. But the most joyous show in town is still Marianne Elliott’s production of Company at the Gielgud. It’s one of those rare shows I recommend to nearly everyone.

As for the final binge of films for 2018, there’s plenty of fun escapism, most notably Disney’s end-of-year treat, Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt. Action blockbuster fans, meanwhile, face a choice between underwater superhero antics with Aquaman or Mortal Engines, Peter Jackson’s steampunk fantasy film based on Philip Reeve’s children’s books in which London is a giant mechanical monster roaming the wildness and gobbling up smaller towns — as good a plan as any for post-Brexit Britain.

William Moore, Arts Editor

Get the party started

Where to see Christmas lights in London

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London is laying on the entertainment just when we all need it most. Tonight Dame Joan Collins switches on the Shepherd Market Christmas lights, while philanthropic celebrities will be mulling wine, mincing pies and rocking around the Christmas tree at services across the city in the next few days — the highlight being the charity Nordoff Robbins’ annual bash in Chelsea next week, this year bringing Bill Nighy, Nile Rodgers and Michaela Coel on board.

Less festive, but always welcome in grey times, is this weekend’s bash to toast the launch of Dame Vivienne Westwood’s much-heralded new collection with Burberry — sure to enter the early hours of the morning — and a right royal knees-up as stars like Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan hit the town after Monday’s premiere of Mary Queen of Scots.

The Londoner

The lit fix

The best books of 2018 - in pictures

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The combination of grim weather and the festive season creates the perfect storm for any serious book-lover. My inner Grinch is thrilled that I’ve received almost no invitations to Christmas parties. Nor can I help feeling relieved that both my Pilates and pottery classes have come to an end until after the New Year. That means from now until Christmas, long uninterrupted evenings stretch effortlessly ahead. I plan to spend as much of this precious time as possible at home, in front of a wood fire, with a glass of red wine and a good book, I’ve chosen for pleasure, not work.

Top of my list is All That Man Is by David Szalay (Vintage, £8.99), which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2016. It was a present from my colleague, this paper’s Literary Editor David Sexton, who has described it as “a collection of nine linked short stories [that] looks increasingly like the masterpiece of British fiction from the past few years.” I can’t wait.

Katie Law, Deputy Literary Editor

An optimistic new look

Festive fashion: Burberry's new Christmas campaign
Burberry

If you quickly side-step over the throbbing wound that is the Great British high street, there’s optimism to be found in the fashion world right now. Most notably among the planet’s most frequent spenders who are waking up to the idea of consuming with a conscience. Whether it’s the end of fur in high fashion — Versace, Gucci, Prada and, most recently, Chanel have all dropped the “real” deal from their collections — to a determination among innovative new brands to create a slow fashion movement that places decent, fairly sourced supply chains at the heart of their endeavours, the fashion world is switched on.

To harbour true joy from such developments you only have to look at the impact fashion activists Parley — who have made it their mission to help brands decrease their plastic waste — are having on the way we shop, and as a result on our oceans. Admittedly these are small steps, but having played the villain for too long, the fashion world is ripe for transformation. I for one am thrilled.

Karen Dacre, Fashion editor

Dine out

The best Christmas menus to feast on in London restaurants

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The capital’s chefs might have cowered as a record number of restaurants closed this year – the Gay Hussar going was particularly sad – but London diners have rarely been so spoiled. Some gorgeous places opened in the past 12 months, with fine dining from Ollie Dabbous’ Hide and Andrew Wong’s Kym’s, to good honest pub grub upstairs at the French House, where Neil Borthwick has revived the once-flagging dining room.

This week alone, the country’s first Indian to earn a Michelin star, Tamarind, is opening after an eight months scrubbing up, while those who don’t mind queuing should try the first European outpost of Din Tai Fung, where the signature pork dumplings, xiaolongbao, each take 40 minutes’ preparation. There’s plenty more to look forward to. Anyone ignoring dry Jan can finally press for champagne at the much delayed Bob Bob Cite, Daniel Humm of New York’s legendary 11 Madison Park is rumoured to be taking over the Claridge’s kitchen, and closer to home Rambla’s Victor Garvey is said to be opening in the city. Still, old favourites always cheer: not much beats a Guinness in the Guinea Grill, oysters at Bentley’s, or the cheese souffle at Le Gavroche. Old friends are always the closest.

David Ellis, Editor, GO London