It's not even Halloween yet! Christmas arrives in London as Fortnum & Mason unveils its 2026 festive window display

Christmas has arrived at Fortnum & Mason as the luxury department store unveiled a glittering festive display at its store in London today.The decorated shop windows are an annual holiday tradition for the brand's Piccadilly branch in the British capital.Last year, the store transformed its windows into a fantastical beasts themed Christmas display. The year before that saw the store turn itself into a giant advent calendar.This year, Fortnum & Mason has chosen to redesign its windows to celebrate the spirit of Christmas at home.Each of its seven windows reveals a room in a house decorated for Christmas. The rooms are carefully adorned with wooden furniture and windows that look out onto a starry night sky.The walls of the display have been decorated using Fortnum & Mason's festive packaging.Each room features a Christmas fairy, designed by German-based illustrator and painter, Olaf Hajek, intended to spread light and Christmas spirit.Hajek also designed the store's cast of animal characters seen across its Christmas range. Among those animals includes the famous Fortnum & Mason Christmas mice who can be seen leaving trails of footprints in flour and pulling Christmas crackers. Fortnum & Mason's Christmas fairy was designed by German-based illustrator, Olaf Hajek. This year's Christmas display featured Fortnum & Mason's iconic mice.The display also has some clever hints to Fortnum & Mason's history. One of the window displays features two jigsaw puzzles, one with 181 pieces to mark its iconic Piccadilly address, the other with 319 pieces to celebrate its 319-year history. Fans of Fortnum & Mason's Christmas decorations will have probably noticed its new Christmas colour scheme. Unlike previous years which have featured jewel-toned colours, or the more traditional red, gold and green scheme, for the first time in its history, Fortnum & Mason's Christmas decorations follow a single colour scheme. The gold and champagne colour palette runs throughout the store and its decorations.Fortnum & Mason's head of Visual Presentation, Sallie Smith, described the importance of this year's festive display: 'Our Christmas windows this year celebrate the warmth and nostalgia of Christmas at home, with our Fortnum’s fairy and mice bringing these traditions to life with a little Christmas magic.'She added: 'We wanted each scene to capture what makes this time of year so special, bringing back fond Christmas memories and inspiring new ones.'Inside, the store has received a similarly festive treatment with a large Christmas tree and top-to-toe decorations.Its display window has been highly anticipated, particularly after its fantastical Christmas-themed display was so well received last year. In 2024, the London store received the royal treatment after Queen Camilla was spotted in the store looking through £13.95 tins of festive tea before deciding on a tin of cinnamon and orange black tea. The Christmas display features seven decorated windows made to look like festive rooms in a house. Fortnum & Mason unveiled its Christmas display on 30 October.Queen Camilla's 2024 visit carried on a long tradition of the Royal family shopping at the store which was given Queen Camilla's first-ever royal warrant in May 2024.Even the late Queen Elizabeth II was a fan of the luxury store at Christmas. According to the website: 'Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II continued the family tradition of doing Christmas shopping in store, which had to be arranged months in advance.'She too favoured giving tea as gifts, and the shop's website adds: 'The list of provisions provided for her and her mother to give as presents reveal a shared practical bent of mind, with breakfast trays, breakfast sets, garden furniture and hostess trolleys being particularly popular.' The store kicked off its festive season last week, launching a selection of beauty, feasting and tea advent calendars. And it's set to be a busy season for Fortnum & Mason. Last year its stores welcomed close to three million shoppers through its doors.Fortnum & Mason's Piccadilly branch is currently open until 8pm Monday-Saturday (6pm on Sundays) and will extend its opening hours to 9pm from November 12 as part of its late-night shopping hours. Across London, other luxury stores are also starting to unveil their Christmas displays and open their doors to eager Christmas shoppers. The Selfridges store on Oxford Street has taken a more global approach with its Christmas display, with each window showing a Christmas scene from a different part of the world, including New York and Hong Kong.Ranked among the best Christmas displays in London last year, Annabel's has also upped its Christmas display this year with a Narnia-inspired window.