_{“Kids believe in Santa; adults believe in childhood.” Cate Kennedy, Dark Roots}

I knew London would be busy, but I did not expect it to be as busy as shown to me by the 139 bus, on diversion around Trafalgar Square to Oxford Street. And I did not expect to see so many Santas.

Halfway through the journey, I was busy wondering if the bus would ever be able to make its way through the stream of shoppers on a pedestrian crossing, when I saw the junction to our left crowded in red. I looked again. They were Santas. As I reached for my camera the bus began to inch, and then to accelerate forward. The result was the blurred picture above, confirmation at least of what I thought I’d seen. I’ve no idea where these Santas were headed, or where they’d been.

At last the bus made it to Oxford Street and I jumped off. By this time I was late, and the pavements were packed. They were also very relaxed. Too relaxed. They were having a good time, meandering like slow rivers, ferrying family groups and their packages to and fro. I dodged and huffed, trying to make my way around and through the window shoppers, and out-and-abouters, as best I could, praying hard that I wouldn’t get run over by a flourescent pedicab. Somehow I didn’t. Even more miraculously, I arrived where I had to … and just in time.

On my way back I decided to cram on to the Underground. That was a squished experience, but it did take about one fifth of the time it had taken the bus to reach the same point. The downside was there were no Christmas lights, and there was no sign of any Santas.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023