Christmas in Seattle

The tree on the space needle

 Christmas has come to Seattle and the tree is set on to of the space needle, the cranes are decked with Christmas trees, and the streets are lined with lights, time for some pictures.

Last Friday the 6th I went to the Figgy Pudding Contest.

Contrary to what it sounds like this isn't a pudding eating contest, America doesn't do Christmas puddings or mince pies, although I have now found a source for gingerbread lattes so all is not lost. The Figgy Pudding contest is in fact a Carol singing contest.

There were about 40 groups of singers competing, they close off a couple of streets and all the groups have a place allocated to set up. You then wonder between the group listening. There was a whole mix of songs, modern, traditional, one group of guys were singing in Latin, and one group were tap dancing!

It was rather crowed and very cold

The tap dancers

And here goes with some videos...

The tap dancers:

Traditional carols...

And because even Christmas time should include rap...

Then it was time to catch the monorail over to Seattle Centre for the Nutcracker Ballet. This is something of a specialty of the Seattle Ballet and if you are ever here in December you should try and see it. It cost $25 for the cheapest tickets which is about £15 (at the moment). The set, costumes, music, and dancing were all amazing. Yay, I'm excited just thinking about it!

This is the stage of the Nutcracker, we were right at the back but it was still amazing