Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, I reviewed The Crown, Season 3. Tina made soup from the The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook.

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The Nutcracker and the Four Realms was a holiday release for Disney last year. It didn’t do well at the box office or with critics, but I think it’s delightful — proving once again that I have the taste of an eight-year-old.

It starts the way all of my favorite movies start — with a flyover of London. In this case, it’s Victorian London. The flight takes us to Clara, a clever girl with engineering skills.

We get some lovely Victorian Christmas scenes — a carriage ride in the snow, Christmas trees, a holiday party with dancers in a festive setting.

Drosselmeyer, Clara’s godfather (played with mystery and charm by Morgan Freeman) has a workshop reminiscent of the Crystal Palace.

Throughout, we hear Tchaikovsky’s music — that always puts me in the holiday spirit.

The magical world that Clara visits is populated by fantastic characters like the Sugar Plum Fairy (Keira Knightley) and Mother Ginger (Helen Mirren).

Have you seen The Nutcracker and the Four Realms? What did you think?