Kolkata Chronicles ~ Celebrating Christmas at Park Street

The Kolkata trip was the result of an ardent wish to celebrate Christmas at Park Street. Since the husband had a conference starting the day post Christmas, I thought it was an awesome opportunity to finally fulfilling this long cherished (travel) wish of mine!! However, the idea came to us just a week before and so it was a mad rush to organize this trip.

 So, a week before Christmas  saw us frantically looking up MakeMy Trip’s online ticket booking for  flights, going through innumerable options from various airlines and having to let go of some wonderfully cheap flight options from JetAirways & Go Air (because the dates/timing didn’t suit us); finally we were able to land in Kolkata on the 23^rd December.

Park Street is THE hangout place in Kolkata with many of its iconic hotels, restaurants, pubs &discotheques and street food joints located here. It is famously called as “The Street that never Sleeps”.

During Christmas, Park Street does a merry makeover each year, adorning itself with as many lights, trees and festive decorations as possible. All the crowds of Kolkata and travelers from outside the city descend here to celebrate the Yuletide spirit. The energy, fun and spirit are so very infectious.

 

Though we have my parent’s home in Kolkata, we decided to stay in the vicinity of Park Street till Christmas, so as to totally immerse ourselves in the Christmas festivities.

Our fun times started the evening we landed; after checking in at the hotel and quick refreshment we headed out to Park Street which was lit up beautifully; trees were done up and there were also thematic light boards. We felt happy and delighted walking the street, clicking pics of the lights & revelry and having yummy street food.

There was Kolkata Christmas Festival going on in the main park area of the street and we got to listen to some lovely Christmas carols, it totally put us in high spirits!!  The crowd, the songs, the decorations, the food, all together combined beautifully to create a warm cheer in our hearts.

We ended the night with dinner at the wonderful Bistro at the Park (we wanted to have dinner at the higly famous Peter Cat, but the waiting line was too much for ur patience, especially after the flight). The food was delicious, the service efficient and what I really liked were their Tablet Menus.

The next day (24^th December), we headed out (with mum) for a short city tour to some of the heritage places, meeting up with some family & friends (but more about that later) and praying at the St. Paul’s Cathedral.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral which is part of the Anglican Communion in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.  It is also the seat of the Diocese of Calcutta. Built in 1847, it is one of the major attractions on Kolkata city tour.

On Christmas eve, there was a long line of travelers and devotees at the cathedral. We lit a candle, prayed for some time and got away, since it looked impossible to spend the whole night here.

We then headed to another iconic place in Kolkata (albeit a gastronomic one), Flurry’s tea house. Again, it was packed with people out to have a good time but we managed to get a seat, have a nice meal and watch the world go by from where we sat…it was a lovely evening and we felt it was the best way to celebrate Christmas eve with the 2 of my most loved people - mum and the husband :) 

On Christmas Day, we had a big family gathering at my mum's place and it was such fun to spend the day with my extended family.

Celebrating Christmas at Park Street was so much fun and it was a novel & wonderful  experience  the city of joy gifted me for Christmas in 2012!!