We’ve seen Snowdogs before (twice) so when we heard that Snowmen were coming for a display along the Thames of course Heather and I were going to see them. We got to take Heather’s Mum and little Evie with us too.

The Snowmen were stretched out along the river and around the buildings between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, so we met at London Bridge station beneath the huge Christmas tree to go and find them. There were twelve Snowmen, themed after the Twelve Days of Christmas which Evie would helpfully sing for us as each stop.

The first Snowman presented a colourful partridge resting in its pear tree, right by the river very near the steps up to London Bridge. We collected it in the traditional sense of Heather standing with it to have her photograph taken. Two Turtle Doves were further along the river, a cool blue snowman with the caged birds on his front and a flying sleigh on the rear, standing just at the start of the Christmas market also stretching along this part of the river bank.

Three French Hens took us away from the river, towards Tooley Street, for a fun take on the Frenchness of the hens, complete with berets. Number four played with the idea of calling birds, depicting pigeons using a phone box. The rear made it one of my favourites though, showing the Tower of London and a calling raven. It was located in Hey’s Galleria where Evie also found a giant ice cream to lick and a huge bauble to balance on her head.

Back by the river, next to HMS Belfast, a slightly confusing Five Gold Rings stood. It turns out the wreath around its neck is supposed to count as one of the rings but that was far from obvious, leaving us pondering a while why there only seemed to be four (only one of which was an actual ring). More successful at the other end of Belfast was the stained glass styled Six Geese A Layin’, a nice design which Evie helped ensure did indeed gave six geese.

Round by the Crown Court Seven Swans A Swimming was striking for the bold swan on its front and mass of wings from all the swans shown. Possibly not as striking as Eight Maids A Milking, which took the approach of looking like one of the pied cows they might be engaged with, black and white splodges covering the snowman along with the stylised maids.

Further into More London Nine Ladies Dancing was a suitably wintery design, the dancing however being more ice skating than necessarily pirouetting. Evie of course made sure there were really nine of them. By the fountain Ten Lords A Leaping had ten Lords (and Ladies) leaping in their robes.

We were reaching the end now, each verse of the song getting longer as it was recited on the discovery of the associated Snowman. Eleven Pipers Piping had a range of animal pipers, playing a range of different pipe types. The final Snowman by Tower Bridge was the simple but warm feeling Twelve Drummers Drumming, invoking gingerbread and the festive spirit.

Having visited all the Snowmen we headed for some lunch in Cote (who don’t skimp on the quality of the children’s sausages Evie found) and then decided to head for a stroll along the river towards Waterloo and the market by the river at Hungerford Bridge. There we found a carousel, so people piled on for a ride before Heather and I were left alone to wander the rest of the markets (and acquire Heather a hat and gloves which apparently weren’t a Christmas present) and a drink or two hiding from the sudden heavy rain storm before heading home after a lovely day.