For many of us, it’s one of our favourite times of the year. While summer brings us outdoor dancing, Christmas bring us festive cheer and plenty of celebration. So as It’s Beginning To Look Like Christmas, here’s a a list of events that are coming up in December.

• Fri 2 Dec: @JazzFM The Peppermint Candy Swing Christmas (feat Simon Selmon and Paul Golledge): http://bit.ly/uaW654
• Fri 2 Dec: @Swingland Friday Night Jive in Windsor: http://bit.ly/vU7keM
• Sat 3 Dec: LSDS (@swingdanceuk) Saturday Night Swing Club: http://bit.ly/vCajmi
• Sat 3 Dec: Mouthful O’Jam Christmas Party: http://on.fb.me/s10XUp
• Sat 3 Dec: @SwingPatrolLdn Swing Den: http://bit.ly/sPbjex
• Sat 3 Dec: @SwingPatrolLdn Book Club Blues & Swing Pit: http://bit.ly/sPbjex
• Sun 4 Dec: Swing Rendez-vous: http://on.fb.me/vk6Roa
• Sun 4 Dec: Gangbusters: http://bit.ly/uJ33I6
• Fri 9 Dec: Blues Revolution Christmas Party: http://bit.ly/tBraHX
• Fri 9 Dec: @Swingland 2 O’Clock Jump feat King Candy and The Shuga Push: http://bit.ly/upMedh
• Fri 9 Dec: @londonswingcats Swing Party: http://bit.ly/rMsBZl
• Sat 10 Dec: LSDS (@swingdanceuk) Suzi Q: http://bit.ly/s3aSj6
• Sun 11 Dec: The Cakewalk Revival: http://on.fb.me/svByq1
• Sun 11 Dec: @SwingPatrolLdn Red Rhythm: http://bit.ly/sPbjex
• Sun 11 Dec: @londonswingcats: All The Cats Join In: http://bit.ly/vlBF7u
• Wed 14 Dec: Jitterbugs Big Snow Ball: http://bit.ly/s6Iyv3
• Thu 15 Dec: Imperial College Big Band present Christmas Extravaganza: http://on.fb.me/t0mV4O
• Fri 16 Dec: The last Rock a Hula at Bloomsbury: http://bit.ly/u3Anha
• Fri 16 Dec: Hellzapoppin Christmas Party: http://bit.ly/uJ33I6
• Sat 17 Dec: Winter Lindy Hop at @southbankcentre: http://bit.ly/tfHM4J http://on.fb.me/uxwUG4
• Sat 17 Dec: LSDS (@swingdanceuk) King Porter Stomp’s Christmas Party: http://bit.ly/rxT5rD
• Sat 17 Dec: @SwingPatrol Ldn Christmas Party: http://bit.ly/sPbjex
• Sat 17 Dec: The Black Cotton Club Black & Red Christmas Ball: http://bit.ly/rvinek
• Sat 17 Dec: @londonswingcats The Cat’s Meow Christmas Party feat. The Stargazers: http://bit.ly/vlBF7u
• Sat 17 Dec: Jive Party at the Rivoli Ballroom, feat Oo-Bop-Sh’bam: http://bit.ly/uaglsH
• Mon 19 Dec: @londonswingcats: Swing Cats Jam Xmas Party: http://bit.ly/vlBF7u
• Tue 20 Dec: @Swingland C-Jam Christmas Party feat. Graham Hughes & The Sunshine Kings: http://bit.ly/vcaQnr
• Tue 20 Dec: LSDS (@swingdanceuk) Wild Times Christmas Party: http://bit.ly/tqS21d
• Thu 22 Dec: LSDS (@swingdanceuk) Holborn Hop Christmas Party: http://bit.ly/uIX0A2
• Thu 22 Dec: @Swingland A-Train @ The Hammersmith Club, and Classes Wimbledon: http://bit.ly/vFpLAD
• Fri 23 Dec: The La De Dahs at the @southbankcentre (Gig): http://bit.ly/uWTX5d
• Sat 24 Dec: 5 Go Jivin’ at the @southbankcentre: http://bit.ly/uwBbws http://on.fb.me/sSxLWd
• Thu 29 Dec: @Swingland A-Train @ The Hammersmith Club, and Classes Wimbledon: http://bit.ly/vFpLAD
• Fri 30 Dec: The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band at @southbankcentre: http://bit.ly/rp9Ajh http://on.fb.me/vAfE3D
• Sat 31 Dec: 10th Dancers’ Own New Year’s Eve Charity Dance: http://on.fb.me/rQvcZe
• Sat 31 Dec: LSDS (@swingdanceuk) Saturday Night Swing Club New Year Eve’s Party: http://bit.ly/rtuqDk
• Sat 31 Dec: The Black Cotton Club New Year’s Eve Ball: http://bit.ly/tT2Hmy
• Mon 2 Jan: Shanghai Syncopated Orchestra at @southbankcentre: http://bit.ly/sqBFyT http://on.fb.me/u4VXy5

List last updated on Friday, 25 November, 2011 at 11:21 GMT.

For updates on events coming up over the next two weeks, visit our friends at Swing Out London.

It’s a bumper Christmas and New Year schedule, so mark out your diaries, and we hope to see you all dancing!

Notes: This list is not exhaustive and is meant to reflect infrequent events/Christmas parties leading up to the 24th December, and all events after. If there are any errors/omissions, please contact us using our contact form. From last year’s frozen weather experience, we recommend checking with event organisers and their websites before setting off. Whilst we’ll try to update the list with cancellations as we hear of them (particularly on our Twitter feed), we cannot be held responsible for late changes to dates.

Despite the rain from June’s Swing Dance Picnic, we’re optimists. So with that in mind, we’re readying the next edition for Sunday 3 July.

The usuals will be taking place with music from DJs and a bit of entertainment from our beloved octogenarian, John Barnes. So come on down for some summer fun!

Full details below.

SDL events

Date	Time	Event	Venue	Map
Sun 03 Jul 2011	2:00pm	SDL Swing Dance Picnic: July 2011 Edition	Regent’s Park

We’re ready for the Summer. Oh yes, because our Adrian has organised the first of our annual series of Swing Dance Picnics.

The first will be on Sunday 5 June, and feature live band, the Swing Ninjas, a class from professional dancer Taina Kortelainen, and of course, lots of fun from octogenarian, John Barnes.

Full details of the event are in the link below and on our Facebook event page.

SDL Events

Date	Time	Event	Venue	Map
Sun 05 Jun 2011	2:00pm	SDL Swing Dance Picnic: June 2011 Edition	Regent’s Park

As the summer approaches, it means that as usual a number of free gigs pop up, which offer us a great chance to dance outdoors.

We’re more accustomed to the Southbank Centre offering swing dancers a chance to strut their stuff around Christmas, but this summer a couple of events have been organised. The Meltdown Lindy Hop on 11 June features workshops and social dancing with music from one of our favourite bands, Blue Harlem. Later in the month (25 June), the BBC Big Band play a gig with Claire Martin as their guest, which are usually recorded for their Monday night BBC Radio 2 show.

The City of London Festival is an annual event, and this year features three bands whom we all love to bits. First up are the yellow-suited Jive Aces, who will play an evening gig at New Street Square on 21 July. Kai’s Cats, featuring American songstress and Ronnie Scott’s resident, Kai Hoffman, play Devonshire Square in a lunchtime gig on 11 August, and one of London’s swing scene favourites, Rob ‘n’ Pete’s Swing Thing play Paternoster Square the day after.

And with our swing dance picnics (dates to be announced), it’s bound to be a fun summer. Are you feeling it yet?

Events coming up

Date	Time	Event	Venue	Map
Sat 11 Jun 2011	2:30pm	The Meltdown Lindy Hop	Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall
Sat 25 Jun 2011	10:00pm	BBC Big Band with Claire Martin	Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall
Thu 21 Jul 2011	6:00pm	The Jive Aces (Free gig – the City of London Festival)	New Street Square
Thu 11 Aug 2011	12:30pm	Kai’s Cats (Free gig – City of London Festival)	Devonshire Square
Fri 12 Aug 2011	12:00pm	Rob ‘n’ Pete’s Swing Thing (Free gig – COLF)	Paternoster Square

As some of you will have noticed, the updates to the site and the Twitter feed haven’t been as up and coming in the last few weeks. I’d like to offer my sincerest apologies for the reduced coverage, but unfortunately, my baby son was seriously ill in hospital and has been recuperating over the last few months.

At this stage, I’m not yet ready and available to go back to the regular weekend event updates on the site, but I will continue to try to tweet events coming up on an occasional basis. If you’re an organiser, send us a tweet @swingdancersldn and we’ll try to retweet. Tweets will continue to appear on our homepage, so please keep checking those out.

In the meantime, just to say that the recent sun has definitely provided a taster of things to come this summer, and we’ll be looking out for dancing events and organising our own! So watch this space, as they say!