Best Christmas Lights in London 2026: Dates, Route + Tours

✨ Our 19 favourite Christmas lights in London for 2026, with expected switch-on dates, a one-hour walking route through the West End, and the bus, cab and river tours we would book.

The Christmas lights are the best free thing in London in winter. From early November the big West End streets switch on one after another, the markets and rinks open a fortnight later, and by December the whole centre is lit from Oxford Street to Tower Bridge. The lights stay up into early January, so a trip either side of Christmas sees them too.

We have walked these streets most Decembers over the years, usually with a hot chocolate and far too many photos, and this is our list of the displays worth seeking out, with the closest Tube, when each one is expected to go on for 2026, and the route we follow to see the best of them in an hour.

Planning the rest of a festive trip? Our guides to Christmas things to do in London and New Year’s Eve in London cover everything from Christmas Day cruises to fireworks tickets, and our guides to Christmas cruises in London and New Year’s Eve cruises compare every festive sailing on the Thames.

When do the Christmas lights go on in London in 2026?

The first switch-ons are in the first week of November, with Oxford Street, Regent Street, Carnaby and Leicester Square usually lit by around the 6th. Covent Garden, Bond Street, Marylebone and Chelsea follow in the second week, and the Trafalgar Square tree is always lit on the first Thursday of December, which in 2026 is 3 December. Everything stays on until Twelfth Night or a few days after.

The 2026 dates are announced street by street from late September, so where a date below says “expected” we have given last year’s date as a guide and will update this post as each one is confirmed. If you are visiting in the first half of November it is worth checking the individual street’s website before you build an evening around it.

Our one-hour Christmas lights walking route

Start at Oxford Circus Tube after dark (the lights come on around 4pm) and walk east along Oxford Street for a few minutes to see the stars, then come back to the Circus and head south down Regent Street under the angels. Turn left into Carnaby Street about halfway down, wander the side streets, then come back to Regent Street and carry on to Piccadilly Circus.

From Piccadilly Circus, Fortnum and Mason’s windows are five minutes west along Piccadilly. Otherwise head east along Coventry Street into Leicester Square for the market, cut through to Trafalgar Square for the tree (from 3 December), and finish with a walk up St Martin’s Lane and through Seven Dials to Covent Garden, where the big tree and the market hall are the best ending.

It is about two miles, step-free and on the flat, mostly on wide pavements, and takes an hour without stops or two with them. Regent Street and Carnaby are the busiest stretches on weekend evenings; a weeknight is calmer, and the lights are the same.

If you have a whole evening, we have written the long version: our “West End Christmas lights walk” (link to the walk post) runs twelve stops from Bond Street to Covent Garden with a map, timings, loos and step-free notes, and you can take it with you as a Google Maps link and a PDF.

19 of the best Christmas lights in London

Oxford Street Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Oxford Circus
• Expected switch-on: early November 2026 (3 November in 2025)

Oxford Street is London’s shopping street and traditionally the first of the big displays to be switched on. The whole mile is hung with around 300,000 LED lights and more than 5,000 stars, and the department stores, Selfridges above all, compete for the best window displays underneath.

It is the busiest street on this list, so the lights are best seen on a weekday evening or, oddly, on Christmas Day itself, when the street is empty and the lights are still on.

Regent Street Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus
• Expected switch-on: early November 2026 (6 November in 2025)

If we could only see one display it would be this one. The Spirit of Christmas angels, 45 of them with wings spread the full width of the street, have hung over Regent Street every year since 2016 and they are the most photographed lights in London for good reason. The curve of the street means you see them stacked one behind another all the way down to Piccadilly Circus.

Carnaby Street Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus
• Expected switch-on: early November 2026 (6 November in 2025)

Carnaby has been the fun one since the 1960s and its lights are the only West End display with a new theme every year, from butterflies and rainbows in the past to the planets and shooting stars of Carnaby Universe and the multicoloured stars of Into the Light. The 2026 theme is announced in the autumn. It is a short detour off Regent Street and the side streets, Kingly Court especially, are good for a warm drink.

Liberty, the mock-Tudor department store at the top of Carnaby Street, is part of the same walk: the timbered front is garlanded, and the Christmas shop inside, under ceilings strung with fairy lights, is where we buy our decorations.

Piccadilly and St James’s Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Piccadilly Circus or Green Park
• Expected switch-on: early November 2026

This is the smart end of the West End, with The Ritz, the arcades and Fortnum and Mason all on the same stretch of Piccadilly. Fortnum’s is the one we go out of our way for: the façade is lit, the windows are themed, and inside the store is dressed from the ground floor to the tea salon. Princes Arcade and Piccadilly Arcade opposite hang stars under their glass roofs, and are a warm short cut through to Jermyn Street.

Jermyn Street and St James’s Street behind are quieter and lit just as prettily, Waterloo Place has its own tree, and it is a natural place to stop for a late afternoon tea before the rest of the walk.

New Bond Street Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Bond Street
• Expected switch-on: mid-November 2026 (14 November in 2025)

Bond Street is where the designer houses are, and the lights and windows are on a different budget from everywhere else. The street display changes every few years (crowns one year, gold chandeliers another), and the shop fronts are the real show: Cartier wrapped its whole building in golden orbits and stars one Christmas, Dior covered its façade in illuminated seahorses and coral, and Tiffany and the jewellers along here dress their buildings rather than just the windows. In 2025 part of the street was pedestrianised for the season, which made the walking much easier.

Burlington Arcade, which runs between Bond Street and Piccadilly, is lit and decorated from end to end, with giant wreaths hanging the length of it some years, and is the prettiest short cut in London in December.

Mayfair and Belgravia Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Bond Street for Mayfair, Sloane Square or Victoria for Belgravia
• Expected switch-on: mid-November 2026 (16 November in 2025)

Mayfair and Belgravia are two villages of the very well-heeled kind. In Mayfair, South Molton Street and Mount Street are strung with lights and the hotels (Claridge’s tree is a fixture, the Connaught’s tree in Carlos Place is hung with glowing lanterns, and Annabel’s on Berkeley Square covers its whole façade in something outrageous every year) do the rest. In Belgravia, Elizabeth Street and Motcomb Street are lit and the shops decorate their fronts as if it were a competition.

Neither is on the main tourist trail, so both are calm places to see lights on a Saturday evening when Regent Street is heaving.

Leicester Square Christmas lights and market

• Closest tube: Leicester Square
• Expected switch-on: early November 2026 (6 November in 2025)

Leicester Square is the most central of the Christmas markets: wooden chalets around the square selling gifts and festive food, a bar, and the Spiegeltent for shows, all under the lights of the West End cinemas. It is a good place to warm up between Piccadilly and Covent Garden on the walking route above, and the pop-up ice rink is back again in 2026.

Chinatown, one street north, hangs its own red lanterns all year, and the two together on a December evening are one of our favourite London sights.

Trafalgar Square Christmas tree

• Closest tube: Charing Cross
• Switch-on: 3 December 2026, lit until Twelfth Night

The Trafalgar Square tree is a Norwegian spruce sent from Oslo every year since 1947 as a thank-you for Britain’s support in the Second World War. It is lit on the first Thursday of December with vertical strings of white lights in the Norwegian style, so it looks nothing like the rest of London’s lights, and choirs sing carols beneath it most evenings in the run-up to Christmas.

It goes up later than everything else on this list, so if you are visiting in November you will see the square without it.

Covent Garden Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Covent Garden
• Expected switch-on: mid-November 2026 (12 November in 2025)

Covent Garden is where we would send anyone with only one evening. The piazza has a 55-foot tree, the market hall is hung with giant gold bells, red baubles and mistletoe, there are more than 100,000 lights across the estate, and the street performers and carol singers give it an atmosphere no other display has. The theme changes each year (2025 was The Theatre of Christmas) and the 2026 one is announced in the autumn.

Go after 6pm when the office crowds have thinned, and walk out through the Apple Market for the artisan stalls.

Seven Dials Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Covent Garden or Leicester Square
• Expected switch-on: early November 2026

Seven Dials, the star of little streets between Covent Garden and Soho, strings its lights out from the central column along all seven roads, and Neal’s Yard round the corner is lit in every colour. It is two minutes from Covent Garden and most visitors walk straight past it, which is a large part of the appeal.

South Bank Christmas lights and Winter Market

• Closest tube: Waterloo
• Expected dates: early November 2026 to early January 2027 (3 November to 4 January last year)

The riverside between the London Eye and Waterloo Bridge is strung with lights for the whole season and the Southbank Centre Winter Market runs along it: wooden chalets, street food, mulled wine and a view across the Thames to the lit-up Embankment. It is free to wander, open until 10pm, and the London Eye behind it is lit in festive colours.

It is also the best place on this list for a wheelchair or a pushchair, being flat, wide and step-free from Waterloo station.

London Eye Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Waterloo or Westminster
• Expected switch-on: November 2026

The Eye is lit in red, green and gold through December and is the backdrop to most of the South Bank photos you will take. A flight after dark is also the easiest way to see the whole lit-up city at once, with the Houses of Parliament, the Embankment and the West End all below you.

Read: our complete guide to the London Eye

The Shard Christmas lights

• Closest tube: London Bridge
• Expected switch-on: December 2026

Every December the top 20 storeys of the Shard are lit in a changing festive light show that you can see from most of central London, and from the river especially. It is not somewhere to make a special trip for, but if you are near London Bridge or on a Thames cruise after dark it is worth looking up.

Tower Bridge Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Tower Hill or London Bridge
• Expected switch-on: mid-November 2026

Tower Bridge is lit all year, but in December the towers and walkways are picked out in extra lights and the riverside on both sides joins in. On the south bank, Hay’s Galleria has a tree and garlands under its glass roof, and the igloos at the Coppa Club on the north bank, with Tower Bridge lit up behind them and the Shard across the water, are booked up months ahead. Reservations open in the autumn and go fast.

Chelsea Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Sloane Square
• Expected switch-on: mid-November 2026 (15 November in 2025)

Sloane Square, Sloane Street, the King’s Road and Pavilion Road all light up together and every shop and restaurant takes part, so the window displays are as much of the show as the lights overhead. The switch-on itself is a Saturday afternoon event, with the King’s Road pedestrianised from Sloane Square to Walpole Street in 2025 and lined with food stalls, carol singers and a fair.

Duke of York Square, just off the King’s Road, has a Saturday food market and a Christmas market on the same site.

Marylebone Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Baker Street or Bond Street
• Expected switch-on: mid-November 2026 (12 November in 2025)

Marylebone High Street feels more like a village than anywhere else in central London, and its lights are switched on at Merry Marylebone, a Wednesday afternoon street party with live music, stalls, and offers in the local shops and restaurants. It raises money for the Marylebone Project, which supports homeless women, and if your dates line up it is a lovely way to start the season.

Once the lights are on, the High Street and Marylebone Lane are a quiet ten-minute walk from Oxford Street and a good place to escape the crowds for dinner.

King’s Cross Christmas lights

• Closest tube: King’s Cross St Pancras
• Expected dates: mid-November 2026 to early January 2027

There is more to this part of London than Platform 9¾. Behind the stations, Coal Drops Yard and Granary Square put up a Christmas tree taller than Covent Garden’s, string thousands of lights through the old railway arches, and run a series of themed weekend markets through December. The two stations are worth walking through even if you have no train to catch: King’s Cross has a huge tree under its lattice roof, and St Pancras puts up a different showpiece tree every year (2024’s was the green Emerald City tree for Wicked).

Check the King’s Cross festive market dates here.

Battersea Power Station Christmas lights

• Closest tube: Battersea Power Station (Northern line)
• Dates: Glide ice rink 6 November 2026 to 3 January 2027; lights and market from mid-November

Battersea Power Station is the newest name on this list and already one of the best. The four chimneys are lit for the season, a tall tree hung with red, gold and silver baubles stands between them, the riverside walk and Power Station Park are strung with lights, and the Turbine Halls inside are decorated as lavishly as any department store. There is a Christmas market, and the Glide ice rink is back for 2026: three linked rinks beside the chimneys around a 30-foot tree, open from 6 November to 3 January, with tickets on sale now. Book Glide at Battersea here.

It is 15 minutes from the West End on the Northern line, or a lovely river bus ride from Westminster with the lights on both banks.

Christmas at Kew

• Closest tube: Kew Gardens (District line and Overground)
• Dates: 13 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, selected evenings, adults from £29.50 off-peak

Christmas at Kew is the only ticketed display on this list, and the one we would pay for. The trail runs for around two miles through the gardens after dark, past trees wrapped in lights, tunnels of colour and new installations every year, finishing with the fountain and light show in front of the Palm House. Allow a couple of hours and wrap up; it is a long way from the Tube to the far end of the trail.

Tickets are timed, from £29.50 for adults off-peak and £37 at peak times, with children aged four to sixteen from £20 and under-fours free, and the weekend dates before Christmas sell out well ahead.

Book Christmas at Kew here.

⭐ Christmas lights tours in London

Walking is free and the route above covers the West End, but a tour has two advantages on a cold December evening: someone else does the navigating, and an open-top bus, a black cab or a boat gets you to the lights along the river and around Knightsbridge that are too spread out to walk.

We have done the bus tour ourselves, gloves on and grinning, and it is a good way to see a lot in an hour or two.

These are the nine lights tours we would consider for 2026, grouped by how you travel. The four we would book first are written up below the table, and our full guide to Christmas tours in London covers Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and day-trip tours as well.

Vintage Routemaster Christmas lights tour

Our pick of the bus tours is a 1960s open-top Routemaster, dressed for the season and with guaranteed top-deck seats, which takes you round Oxford Street, Regent Street, Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland, and the rest of the West End for 75 minutes from the Grand Hotel on Northumberland Avenue.

We recommend it for readers who want the lights without a long walk; wrap up, because the top deck is open to the sky.

Private Christmas lights tour in a black cab

A licensed London taxi driver who is also a registered guide collects you from your hotel and takes you round the lights for two and a half hours, stopping wherever you want a photo, with water and biscuits on board.

It is priced per cab for up to six, so it suits a family or a group of friends, and it is the only lights tour on this list that is fully wheelchair accessible, since every black cab has a ramp.

Evening cruise on the Thames with City Cruises

The lights along the river are the ones the walking route misses, and the easiest way to see them is from the water.

We work with City Cruises, and their evening cruise sails from Tower Millennium Pier at 6.30 pm for two hours, with a glass of Prosecco on arrival, a selection of cold canapés, and live music on board, past the Illuminated River bridges, the South Bank, the London Eye, and Westminster, and back.

From £42 per person, with an open upper deck and a heated saloon below. It is pitched at adults (children under five cannot board), and it is not wheelchair accessible, so anyone who needs step-free access is better off on the sightseeing cruises.

If you would rather hop on and off in your own time, the 24-hour river pass covers the same stretch between Westminster, Tower and Greenwich, and a late-afternoon sailing catches the lights coming on.

Our guide to Christmas cruises in London compares every festive sailing, including the two that run on Christmas Day.

Christmas party dinner cruise with City Cruises

This is the full festive night out, with a three-course Christmas dinner, a welcome drink and a DJ, four hours on the river from Tower Pier and the lights on both banks the whole way, on selected dates from 27 November to 20 December 2026.

From £86 per person, and the December Fridays and Saturdays sell out early. There is a lunchtime version from Westminster Pier (from £75) if you would rather not be out late.

Our pick of the Christmas lights in London

If you have one evening, walk the route from Oxford Circus to Covent Garden. If you have two, add the river, either the evening cruise or a walk along the South Bank market, because the lights on the water are the ones most visitors miss.

And if you are in London in the first half of November, check the switch-on dates before you go, since a street that is lit on the 6th is dark on the 5th.

Planning the rest of a winter trip? These guides cover the weeks either side:

• 20 Christmas things to do in London (and what runs on Christmas Day)
• New Year’s Eve in London: fireworks, cruises and where to stay
• Events in London in December
• Visiting London in winter
• 18 best Christmas tours in London
• Christmas cruises in London
• New Year’s Eve cruises in London
• What’s on in London month by month