Ice-skating in the picturesque Somerset House. Photo: Wiki Will/ Flickr

Maybe it’s because the ticket for a flight back home is too expensive. Or perhaps you’re one of the many stranded snow exiles. Maybe it’s because of an internship opportunity that has come up. Or maybe it’s just because you want to experience the Christmas festivities abroad.

Whatever the reason, if you are an international and you are spending Christmas in London this year, there are plenty of activities and events to keep you busy during the holiday period.

Here are some of The First Pint’s recommendations:

SWEDISH CHRISTMAS CONCERT:

This event at Wigmore Hall on 23 December celebrates Christmas through some of the most traditional Swedish carols, along with some classics such as Gounod’s Jewel Song from the Faust, and Bach’s and Liszt’s pieces. Among the performers, soprano Susanna Andersson, pianist Bengt Forsberg and cellist Mats Lidström, who is also premiering his composition The Stamp King for piano, cello and narrator. Swedish mulled wine and gingerbread will be served during the interval. Tickets from £12.

CHRISTMAS AT INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS HOUSE:

A place where internationals can feel at home, the ISH is organising a traditional British Christmas party that lasts all day. The celebrations start at 12pm with a drink, followed by a three-course English Christmas meal, the Queen’s speech, a walk in Regent park and then a party with drinks and nibbles and a movie marathon till 9 pm. Tickets cost £10 for students, £30 for alumni and £35 for guests, and can be booked by calling ISH on 0207 323 7233.

The Helter Skelter at Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland. Photo: BitchBuzz / Flckr

Until 4 January, Hyde Park has been transformed into a real wonderland, with an open-air skating rink, an observation wheel and a winter circus. There are also several places to eat, like the Spiegel Saloon, which offers comfort food like burgers and sausages, and bars – from the traditional Star Tavern to the clubby E:Cube, with DJs and cocktails. There are also several rides (prices start from £2), Santa’s Grotto for kids, and a Christmas market where you can buy gifts and food. Entry is free, but some of the attractions must be booked in advance andpaid for (tickets for the ice-skating cost £10, the wheel starts from £7.50 per adult). Winter Wonderland is opened from 10 am to 10 pm, and will close on 25 December only. 

SOMERSET HOUSE ICE RINK:

Famous for its art, design and fashion events, Somerset House is hosting a glamourous ice-rink sponsored by Tiffany until the 23 of January 2011 . It is open until 11.30 pm and on selected Fridays and Saturdays, Djs will play till late. Not very confident about skating on the ice? Then the skate school is for you, with classes taking place on selected dates. Tickets for the ice-rink start from £10.50 and can be booked on somersethouse.co.uk or by calling 0844 847 1520.

MEDIEVAL CHRISTMAS AT TOWER OF LONDON:

 Between the 27 of December and the 31, in addition to the traditional tour of the Tower of London, visitors can enjoy the experience of a truly medieval Christmas celebration. In the restored Medieval Palace, you can step back to 1284 and see how festivities looked at the court of King Edward I, with a table laid out with a thirteen century feast, fools, entertainers and musicians performing. Tickets are included in the standard ticket price.

CHRISTMAS PANTOMIMES:

Pantomimes are a part of the British Christmas traditon and one of the funnest ways to enjoy the holidays. Pantos showing across London this Christmas  include, Sleeping Beauty ( 11 December – 2 January at Beck Theatre), The Snowman (1 December – 9 January at Peacock Theatre), Puss in Boots (18 December – 9 January at Arts Theatre) and Snow White (13 December – 3 January at Shaw Theatre).

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A Christmas Cracker, a staple of English Christmas, was made by Londoner Tom Smith. Photo credit: Sparkly Kate / Flickr

Staying true to its cosmopolitan nature, an amalgamation of imports greets a Christmas in the capital.

Like the Royal family, many of our traditions have been snatched from Germany: Christmas trees, glühwein and stollen cake, and even advent calendars.

But distinctly English elements remain, which baffle newcomers who spend the day in London.
On Christmas morning, with stockings discarded and wrapping paper littering the lounge, families and friends sit down for dinner and pull their crackers.

English folk fail to notice anything strange in donning rainbow-coloured paper hats like kings, reading jokes written by delinquents, and playing with plastic toys made for two-year-olds. It all stems back to Londoner Tom Smith, who in the 1840s used the gimmick of pretty wrapping and words to save his failing bon bon business. It worked, so unfold that paper crown and pass the gravy.

With piles of turkey, stuffing, parsnips, and a plethora of pigs in blankets, it was hoped that brussel sprouts could by now have been forgotten. But alas, they endure.

Filled with sweet alcohol, all English mums have their favourite Christmas pudding recipies. Photo credit: Matt Riggott / Flickr

Despite the majority’s distaste for this tiny green cabbage, they somehow make it to the dinner table every year, and onto everyone’s plate. Prepare yourself with the Attack of the Sprouts game.

But a sweet treat will follow, with the arrival of the hot Christmas pudding. Traditionalists still prepare the pud weeks in advance, leaving the fruit to soak up the spices, and then steaming it for hours on Christmas day. The topping is an integral part; soaked in brandy and set alight, or drizzled with brandy butter, or creamy custard.

After Christmas dinner

All must be consumed by 3pm, when Her Majesty takes to the airwaves and internet and telly to bring good tidings to the Commonwealth. The content is largely obsolete; the Queen’s Speech merely marks the shift from table to television just as the grey sky (for it is always grey) darkens. An alternative can be found on Channel 4, who since the nineties have broadcast everyone from Marge Simpson to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

After musing on the Royal reflections, flick through a copy of the Radio Times Christmas issue – which will list the reappearance of favourite films and comedy duos from years gone by. Be charmed by Wallace and Gromit, and avoid the melodrama of British soap operas, outdoing each other in scenes of social breakdown.

A couple of hours drift by before someone opens another box of Cadbury’s Roses, and the octogenarians in the room hunt out the sherry and the port.

Late night games

To wrap up your English Christmas experience, have a nice mince pie. Photo credit: Girl Interrupted Eating / Flickr

As evening draws in night, whether it is Scrabble, Monopoly, or something a little less timeless, no amount of technological advancement will prevent the appearance of the board game.

Warm mince pies keep the players playing, which for many years have had nothing to do with mince-meat at all. Packed with dried fruit and parceled in pasty, they vie for attention with Christmas cake. The latter however is merely fruit cake dressed up with a tartan ribbon and a festive message scrawled onto white icing.

The elderly snoring on the sofa marks the close of Christmas day. And so to bed.

To wake on Boxing Day, which once was used to give boxes or gifts to the poor or the workers. Now it exists as an overspill of Christmas, with turkey sandwiches, and television, and one more mince pie.

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The relaxing (and Christmassy) atmosphere helps the creative process. Photo: Carmen Kong

Are you sick and tired of mundane Christmas shopping at the painfully impenetrable Oxford Street? For last-minute shoppers who still plan to wow their friends and family with thoughtful Christmas goodies, here is an alternative suggestion: make your own Christmas jewellery!

The London Jewellery School is offering a two-and-an-half hour jewellery-making workshop this Friday for those who want to put a little something different under the Christmas tree. In small groups of six, participants are first taught basic beading skills to make simple, yet adorable, earrings and bracelets before letting your imagination and creativity run wild!

If you are dazzled by the colours and beauty, so will your friends and family. Photo: Carmen Kong

Even if you are a helplessly colour-blind beginner like myself, the friendliness of the teacher, as well as the relaxing and chatty atmosphere, will allow your mind to relax and make the most memorable jewellery of your own. All materials and refreshments are included, so just sit back, relax, hum along with Michel Bublé in the background and unleash your creative side.

Advice for absolute beginners:

1.Try to make it simple. Most of the time less is more!

2.Have the person you’re making it for in mind and you’ll see what works and what doesn’t.

3.Similar colour schemes match, but sometimes a big contrast such as green, orange and gold, work surprisingly well.

Last warning: It is almost guaranteed that you will walk out of the studio, wanting to keep all the goodies to yourself. For the sake of checking that Christmas present list, think of a back-up plan!

The one-off course costs £35, with materials and refreshments. More information can be found on http://www.londonjewelleryschool.co.uk

Read more from The First Pint, the international's guide to all that London offers.

Former mayor Ken Livingstone talks about his views on immigration, racism and London as an international city. Photo courtesy of Emma Beal

With Ken Livingstone you never know what to expect. When asking about the name of this website, he was exactly spot on. “The First Pint?” he said. “Is it like the first pint you have in a London pub?” From this he began explaining how big a part of English life surrounds the pub culture, adding that pub closing times were introduced in World War I to force people to sober up and work for the war effort. You just don’t know what to expect from Ken.

A notorious left-wing politician, Ken Livingstone was the first Mayor of London. He has seen the city go through most of its modern milestones, including its rise as an international financial centre, the July 7 2005 bombings, and winning the 2012 Olympic Games nomination. He is currently running against Oona King as the Labour party’s candidate for this year’s mayoral election where he’ll face the current mayor, Boris Johnson. Ken is confident that if he wins the candidacy, he will beat Boris.

Shortly before Conservative MP Damian Green’s declarations about international students, The First Pint spoke to Ken Livingstone about how London was moulded into an international city. He shares with us a bit of London’s past, the hardships he had to deal with when he was mayor and what he thinks of London today.

The First Pint: What are your views of London as a city for internationals?

Ken Livingstone: Both London and New York have over a third of their citizens born in a foreign country and these are the two international financial centres. If you want a generally international centre, you’ll have a lot of foreigners in it. That’s the core.

What we’ve specifically said in London and what has been part of our theme here for the past 30 years is that we don’t just want foreigners to come here and invest; we would like it if you bring your culture as well. The result is that you have this huge relaxed community that has come to terms with the fact that people are different. As long as everybody else lives their life the way they want, you can live your life as you want.

Race issues in London have come a long way since Ken Livingstone's youth. Photo credit: Clive Power / Flickr

TFP: As mayor you promoted London as an international city. How did this come about?

KL: In the 1980s, it was more about challenging racism which was much stronger than now.

I remember that my mother worked in a bakery chain and a young black woman turned up for a job, this would be early to mid 1960s, and my mum said she was a really nice girl but they couldn’t take a black person handling food. We were much more backwards than America in race issues and it was something that we had to work on.

It was only when I became mayor that the social responsibility and a sort of economic strategy blended together. It wouldn’t be a world that I necessarily would have created but it was the world that I was stuck with.

TFP: You were mayor when the 7 July 2005 London bombings occurred. How did you deal with terrorism alongside the issue of racism?

KL: On the issue of terrorism, we just took the view that they were small groups of disaffected individuals in each community who were likely to try violence not just from Islamic fundamentalists but from angry young white men. Just before I became mayor we had the London Bomber, an angry young white man called David Copeland, who was a racist BNP supporter who let off bombs in Brixton and Brick Lane. The police services have always been aware of the danger of this. So there was the potential in any community where there are angry young men.

TFP: How do you think that you dealt with racism?

KL: In a sense all those campaigns going back to the early 1970s where individual politicians, faith leaders, community leaders, trade unionists, were all making the case for tolerance and equality and it developed into multiculturalism. This is just the work of a lot of people over nearly four decades and it just created this city where basically people aren’t terribly concerned about [racism]. One person in twenty in the city is now mixed race. Which is quite different say, from New York where I think it would be less.

Ken Livingstone has always promoted diversity in London. Photo credit: Stonewall UK / Flickr

TFP: I’m fairly new to the city, I’ve been here for maybe two years. And I’ve always had the feeling that London was an international city…

KL: But it wasn’t like that when I was growing up. There were small immigrant communities – the Irish in places like Kilburn, small Chinese communities in the East End, a very small Somali community around the Docks. I was born in 1945 and I remember parents talking about the fact that black people were first coming to Brixton. I didn’t talk to a black person until I started my secondary school and my chemistry teacher was from Nigeria. I remember the first time a black person in the street spoke to me on a bus. I sat next to him, nobody wanted to sit next to him, and he made a comment about prejudice. I must’ve been 13 or 14.

For most Londoners, it was really only in the 1960s and ’70s that they started developing a relationship with people of a different colour.

TFP: If you see the evolution of London as a multicultural city, do you think it has gotten better?

KL: I think it consistently gets better. Even the fact that you’ve got a very right wing Tory mayor in the form of Boris Johnson… the one thing he is not reactionary about is immigration. He has never made a speech criticising immigration and he doesn’t pander to anti-immigrant feelings. He has also adopted my policy that illegal immigrants should all have an amnesty and be able to become legitimate citizens and pay taxes.

We used to be a city in economic decline and we became the only city in Europe that matches American levels of competitiveness and productivity and that is largely because we are the most open city. People who get off their back sides and come half way around the world don’t come to stay in a bedsit: they’ve come to make their fortune. There is a reason that it is starting to change. Asian immigrants generate over twice the economic benefit of an indigenous citizen, on average.

TFP: How do you make the international community more comfortable in London?

KL: It’s just a question of keep bringing them here first. Then the key thing is celebrating the cultural differences. You have the Notting Hill Carnival here on a Sunday, we have St. Patrick’s, we celebrate Chinese and Russian New Years. I’ve done a lot of that as mayor so that Londoners can turn out on the day and get a taste of other people’s culture that they might not necessarily otherwise get.

TFP: Finally, what do you think of the immigration cap and the restrictions on foreign students coming to London?

KL: We’d be mad to cap or restrict the flow of foreign students. If someone is coming to study, they should be allowed to come. Nine out of ten go back to their country of origin anyway. If they have good links and have a favourable opinion of London, many of them will be in important positions and it will influence the decisions that they make. It will benefit us in the long run.

I’m all in favour of expanding the number of foreign students coming in. They’re the people that are going to determine the things that will happen in their own countries. If eventually they have to take a decision as to where to site their business operations in Europe, we would want them to think that London is the best place to do it in.

Read more from The First Pint, the international's guide to all that London offers.