{"id":1355,"date":"2015-12-14T15:32:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T15:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/?p=1355"},"modified":"2015-12-14T21:23:15","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T21:23:15","slug":"shakespeare-and-santa-claus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/2015\/12\/14\/shakespeare-and-santa-claus\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakespeare and Santa Claus"},"content":{"rendered":"

We were fortunate enough that when we went to Stratford-upon-Avon, we joined the locals in celebrating the arrival of Santa Claus. It was truly a magical experience and the town of Stratford-upon-Avon was everything that we expected for a small English village.\u00a0 There is something special about walking the streets of a town so rich in history, thinking about all who have walked those same footsteps.\u00a0 The shops, pubs, and people were all extremely welcoming as the holiday spirit certainly filled the air.<\/p>\n

\"Stratford-upon-Avon\"<\/a>
Stratford-upon-Avon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Gathering Crowd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Punch<\/a>
Punch and Judy Show<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The town of Stratford-upon-Avon is a tourist destination due to the fact that it is the birthplace of William Shakespeare, but we were surrounded more by locals than tourists while we were there.\u00a0 The Royal Shakespeare Theatre is located in Stratford where the plays of Shakespeare are still performed.\u00a0 The original charter for the town was granted in 1196, making it over 800 years old.\u00a0 Located in Warwickshire, England, nestled along the River Avon, it is truly a destination well worth visiting.\u00a0 Seeing the home where Shakespeare was born is a memory that will stay with you forever.<\/p>\n

\"Swan<\/a>
Swan Theatre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Shakespeare's<\/a>
Shakespeare’s Birthplace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The most memorable part of the visit, however, was when everyone gathered in the center of town outside of the Town Hall on Sheep Street to wait for the arrival of Santa Claus.\u00a0 After it turned dark, the town officials came out onto the balcony to address the crowd.\u00a0 Then, to the excitement of the children and adults alike, Santa Claus appeared on the roof, waving to the crowd below.\u00a0 After seeing the arrival of Santa Claus, we went to one of the pubs where there were large punch dispensers with mulled wine to warm the belly as much as our hearts had been warmed.<\/p>\n

\"Gathering<\/a>
Gathering Outside of the Town Hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Arrival<\/a>
Arrival of Santa Claus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The following day, we joined other holiday shoppers in the market that had been set up to sell a wide variety of crafts and products.\u00a0 We also visited the various shops that were all festively decorated for the holiday season.\u00a0 We purchased holiday decorations for family and friends as well as some for ourselves.\u00a0 We ended up buying another suitcase, just so we could bring home everything that we found while we were there.\u00a0 There were also plenty of restaurants with local fare to eat, such as the traditional fish and chips, bangers and mash, steak and ale pie, and bubble and squeak.\u00a0 Needless to say, besides the mulled wine, there were plenty of pints of ale to be found and we enjoyed several of them.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Shops in Stratford-upon-Avon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Market Place<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was truly one of the highlights of our visit to England.\u00a0 We had been in London prior to heading to Stratford-upon-Avon and it was almost as if we’d travelled back in time.\u00a0 I’m sure that it is beautiful during the summer, but if you get the chance to visit during the holiday season, we’d highly recommend it.\u00a0 Stratford-upon-Avon will stay in our hearts for many years to come.<\/p>\n

\"Preparing<\/a>
Preparing for the Celebration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We were fortunate enough that when we went to Stratford-upon-Avon, we joined the locals in celebrating the arrival of Santa Claus. It was truly a magical experience and the town of Stratford-upon-Avon was everything that we expected for a small English village.\u00a0 There is something special about walking the streets of a town so rich … <\/p>\n

Continue reading Shakespeare and Santa Claus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89944846,"featured_media":1407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1311],"tags":[1917,15607,594157737,594157749,594157734,588816,436,62411,112724,771996,200,814],"class_list":["post-1355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-england","tag-beer","tag-christmas","tag-england","tag-europe","tag-food","tag-mulled-wine","tag-photography","tag-santa-claus","tag-shakespeare","tag-stratford-upon-avon","tag-travel","tag-wine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/imgp1319.jpg?fit=3008%2C2000&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6pbM5-lR","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89944846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1355"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1417,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1355\/revisions\/1417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}