Germany,  London,  Newcastle-upon-Tyne,  Seasons,  The Changing Seasons,  Themed galleries

Gallery: a December selection (2025)

December 31, 2025 / 58 Comments

How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?

Dr. Seuss

I think most of us will recognise that sensation of time flying, of December arriving before we feel ready for it. How many times have you said, or heard said, ‘Where has this year gone?’ I’ve read that this impression of time speeding up is a real phenomenon, as we perceive each year in relation to the total number of years lived. When we are five, a year is a fifth of our life, and as we remember little of our first few years, that’s almost a lifetime! When we are thirty it is a thirtieth of our life, when we are sixty a sixtieth and so on. It’s perhaps not surprising then that the years seem shorter now than they once did.

Long or short, every year ends with December, which for many of us means the build-up to the Christmas celebrations. And for those who like me live in the Northern Hemisphere, it also means short days, long dark nights and cold weather. This year though, December in London was unnaturally mild, only turning seasonally cold on Christmas Eve.

My December

Mild or cold, we have kept busy. We spent a few days in Cologne with friends to see Newcastle United play Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, and take in the Christmas Markets. I had three pre-Christmas meals out: with my photography group, with Virtual Tourist friends visiting from Chicago and those based in London, and with my oldest friends from my school days. I continued to enjoy my U3A table tennis afternoons and we went to the cinema once, to see ‘Eternity’, enjoyable but light.

Christmas Day was spent at my nephew’s house where his now one year old daughter was very excited but also very well-behaved. My other nephew, my sister and brother-in-law were also there so it was a lively and enjoyable day.

A few days later we travelled to Newcastle to see in the New Year there and catch up with family and friends. On the last day of the year we enjoyed a cold but sunny walk by the sea in Cullercoats and Tynemouth. I’ve included one photo from that in my slideshow, with more to follow soon as it was a perfect day for photography!

I am posting this from Newcastle on New Year’s Eve, and want to wish everyone reading this all the very best for 2026.

Technical notes

The Cologne shots were taken with my Lumix point and shoot camera, as was the one in Tynemouth, while the rest were taken with my phone. Most have been at least a little edited with Photoshop Elements and some more heavily edited with Nik Color Efex.

As always I am linking my selection to Ju-Lyn’s and Brian’s Changing Seasons challenge. Use the arrows to navigate the slideshow if you want to see all the images.

My feature photo was taken in St James’s Park on a chilly Boxing day walk.



58 Comments

Do share your thoughts, I'd love to hear from you! And please include your name in case WP marks you 'anonymous' - thank you