Christmas can be a wonderful time of year for friends and family, but have the modern trappings removed some of the magic from the holiday season?
Getty Images photographer Peter Macdiarmid combed through the photo service’s archives and digitally combined iconic pictures of Christmas in London throughout history with recent photographs from the city. The results are delightfully eerie and a pleasant reminder that, despite how much society may change, some traditions stay the same.
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| Father Christmas arrives at the Arding and Hobbs store on Nov. 2, 1926 in Clapham Junction, London. |
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| Sandbags protect a shop window at Selfridges department store in London during the first Christmas of World War II on Dec. 16, 1939. |
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| London’s St Paul’s Cathedral on Dec. 19, 1950. The 1950 tree was brought from the royal estates at Windsor. |
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| Turkeys are auctioned at Smithfield Market for Christmas trade on Dec. 21, 1968. |
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| The statue of Lord Beaconsfield stands in front of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Parliament Square, on Dec. 24, 1938. |
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| Christmas decorations consisting mainly of snow crystal stars made of aluminium give the effect of a snowstorm on Regent St. on Nov. 30, 1955. |
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| A group of people dressed as Santa Claus wait for the bus in Holborn on Dec. 1, 1960. |
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| Christmas turkeys hang outside a poulterers on Watling St. in Dec.1923. |
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| Students of King’s College sing Christmas carols outside the Old Curiosity Shop, as immortalized by Charles Dickens on Portsmouth St. on Dec. 12, 1956. |
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| Selfridges department store is lit up by Christmas decorations on Dec. 6, 1935 in London. |
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| Stable companions appear in ‘Song of the Drum’ at Drury Lane Theatre on Endell St. on Dec. 30, 1933. |
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| Two policemen view London’s 64-foot Christmas tree, a gift from Norway, illuminated in Trafalgar Square on Dec. 1, 1948. |
(Photos © Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images Europe)
