20 Christmas Things to Do in London 2026 (+ Christmas Day)

✨ Our 20 favourite Christmas things to do in London for 2026, with dates and booking links, plus what is open on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and how to get around when the Tube stops.

London in the run-up to Christmas is a different city from the one most visitors see in summer. The lights go on in early November, the markets and ice rinks open a fortnight later, and by December the whole of the West End is dressed for the season. It stays that way into early January.

We have spent a good few Christmases in London over the years, and this is the list we would give a friend: 12 festive things to do from mid-November onwards, five for Christmas Day itself (when almost nothing runs, so it pays to know what does), and three for Boxing Day. Dates are for the 2026 season, and everything that needs booking is linked.

Staying on for the fireworks? Our guide to New Year’s Eve in London covers tickets, cruises and where to stay.

12 of the best Christmas things to do in London

Book a festive photoshoot

A festive London photoshoot is a lovely way to come home with something better than phone snaps, and December is when the city looks its best for it. Covent Garden, Carnaby Street and the arcades off Piccadilly all make wonderful backdrops, and the photos double as your Christmas card.

We booked ours with Domi of Scalens Studio, and the code UKTP10 gives you 10% off at checkout.

See London’s Christmas lights

• When: switch-ons from early November 2026, lit until early January 2027 (exact dates are announced street by street each autumn)
• Where: Oxford Street, Regent Street, Carnaby, Bond Street, Covent Garden, the South Bank and beyond
• Open Christmas Day? Yes, and the streets are almost empty
• Open Boxing Day? Yes

The Christmas lights are the best free thing in London in December, and a walk from Oxford Circus down Regent Street, through Carnaby and on to Covent Garden takes in most of the famous ones in an hour or so.

If walking that far in the cold is not appealing, the open-top bus and black cab tours above cover the same route from a seat, and a City Cruises evening cruise with canapés is a lovely way to see the riverside lights from Westminster to Tower Bridge.

Our guide to the best Christmas lights in London has every display, its switch-on date and a walking route.

Take a Christmas tour of London

• When: mid-November to early January
• Where: all over London
• Open Christmas Day? A handful of walking tours and cruises run on 25 December
• Open Boxing Day? Most tours are back on 26 December

There is a Christmas version of almost every London tour: lights tours by bus, cab and on foot, Dickens walks that end at a pub, Christmas market walks with mulled wine, carol services and river cruises. They are a good way to cover a lot of festive ground on a cold evening without planning a route yourself.

Our round-up of 22 Christmas tours in London compares them all.

Head to the Southbank Centre Winter Market

• When: expected early November 2026 to early January 2027 (last year it ran 3 November to 4 January)
• Where: South Bank, between the London Eye and Waterloo Bridge
• Closest tube: Waterloo
• Open Christmas Day? No
• Open Boxing Day? Yes

The Southbank Centre’s market is the one we send people to first: wooden chalets along the river selling gifts, crafts and street food from around the world, with the London Eye lit up behind and the whole riverside strung with lights. It is free to wander, open daily from late morning until 10pm, and the mulled wine and bratwurst stalls are a fixture.

In 2025 a Bavarian-style singalong bar called Bar Humbug ran alongside the market, with live music and piano-led Christmas singalongs. Whether it returns for 2026 was still to be confirmed when we updated this post.

Check the Southbank Centre’s winter programme here.

Visit Hogwarts in the Snow

• When: 14 November 2026 to 17 January 2027
• Where: Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, Watford
• Open Christmas Day? No
• Open Boxing Day? No

For Potter fans, this is the one to build a day around. The sets at the Warner Bros. Studio Tour are dressed for Christmas, the Great Hall is laid out for the Yule Ball from Goblet of Fire, and the Hogwarts castle model at the end of the tour is covered in snow. All of it is included in the standard ticket, and tickets for December weekends go months ahead.

Read more about Hogwarts in the Snow here

If you would rather not work out the train to Watford, this package includes the Studio Tour and a return coach from central London

Enter Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland

• When: 19 November 2026 to 3 January 2027
• Where: Hyde Park
• Closest tube: Hyde Park Corner or Marble Arch
• Open Christmas Day? No
• Open Boxing Day? Yes

Winter Wonderland is the big one: a funfair, Christmas market, ice rink, ice bar, circus shows, a Santa’s grotto and the Magical Ice Kingdom, spread across the eastern end of Hyde Park for six weeks. It is enormous, it is busy, and children in particular love it.

Entry is ticketed in one-hour arrival slots. Off-peak slots (Monday to Thursday in November) are £1, standard slots £5.50 and peak slots, mostly evenings and weekends, £8.25, and entry is free if you pre-book £25 or more of rides, attractions or food in the same transaction.

Once you are in you can stay as long as you like. Rides and attractions cost extra, and the packages are cheaper booked online than on the day.

Check the ticket options here.

See the Christmas tree at Trafalgar Square

• When: lit on the first Thursday of December (3 December 2026) until Twelfth Night
• Where: Trafalgar Square
• Closest tube: Charing Cross
• Open Christmas Day? Yes
• Open Boxing Day? Yes

The tree in Trafalgar Square has been a gift from the people of Oslo every year since 1947, a thank-you for Britain’s support during the Second World War.

It is a Norwegian spruce, usually more than 20 metres tall and half a century old, hung with vertical strings of white lights in the Norwegian style.

The lighting ceremony is on the first Thursday of December, and choirs sing carols under it most evenings in the run-up to Christmas.

Enjoy Christmas at Kew

• When: 13 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, selected evenings
• Where: Kew Gardens
• Closest tube: Kew Gardens (District line and Overground)
• Open Christmas Day? No
• Open Boxing Day? Yes

Christmas at Kew is the light trail we would choose over any other in London. The route winds for around 2.5 km through the gardens after dark, past trees wrapped in lights, tunnels of colour and new installations each year, and finishes with the fountain and light show in front of the Palm House. Allow a couple of hours, and wrap up.

Tickets are timed and start from £25.50, and the popular dates sell out well ahead. New for 2026 are two adults-only evenings on 3 and 9 December.

Book Christmas at Kew here.

Go to a Christmas show or pantomime

• When: late November to early January
• Where: the West End, and the Palladium for the big panto
• Open Christmas Day? No
• Open Boxing Day? Yes, and Boxing Day matinees are the most sought-after tickets of the season

A West End show is a good idea at any time of year, but Christmas is when to try a pantomime if you never have. A panto is a loud, musical, slightly chaotic retelling of a fairy tale, with a dame, a villain to boo and a lot of shouting from the audience, and it is one of the most British things you can do in December. The London Palladium’s panto is the big one, and every local theatre has its own.

Browse everything in the West End over Christmas on London Theatre Direct.

5 things to do in London on Christmas Day

Christmas Day is the one day of the year when London stops. There is no public transport at all, the big attractions and almost every shop are shut, and most restaurants are closed or fully booked months ahead. It is also, for exactly those reasons, one of the loveliest days to be in the city if you plan for it. These five all run on 25 December.

Have Christmas lunch on the Thames

With the Tube shut and the restaurants full, a Christmas Day cruise solves lunch and sightseeing in one go, and it is the thing on this list that most visitors don’t know exists. City Cruises run two sailings on 25 December from Westminster Pier.

Christmas Day Lunch Cruise, from £175 per person. Around three hours on the river with a traditional three-course Christmas lunch with all the trimmings, a glass of sparkling wine on arrival, tea or coffee afterwards, and carols and festive music on board, with Westminster, the London Eye, St Paul’s and Tower Bridge sliding past the windows. It sells out early every year. Check availability for the Christmas Day Lunch Cruise.

Christmas Day Sightseeing Cruise, from £32 per person. A one-hour circular cruise with commentary and a licensed bar, running several times through the day, and under-fives go free. If you have lunch booked elsewhere, this is a good way to see the empty city from the water. Check availability for the Christmas Day Sightseeing Cruise.

Westminster Pier is a walk from most central hotels, which matters on a day with no transport; from Covent Garden or Westminster it is 10 to 20 minutes on foot.

Book Christmas lunch at a London pub

Plenty of London pubs open for a few hours on Christmas Day to serve a full festive lunch: roast turkey with roast potatoes, pigs in blankets, sprouts and cranberry sauce, a starter, and Christmas pudding to finish. The atmosphere in a good pub on Christmas Day is hard to beat, with tables toasting each other and paper hats everywhere.

Almost all of them are pre-booked only, with a set price per head, and the well-known ones are full by September. If you are reading this in the autumn and want a pub lunch on the day, this is the week to book it.

Attend a Christmas Day service

St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and churches across London hold services on Christmas morning, and Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Both cathedrals are closed to sightseers on 25 December, so a service is the only way in that day, and the singing in either is something to remember.

Timings are published on each church’s website in November. Some of the big services are ticketed or first come, first served, and the queues for Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s form well before the doors open.

Walk through a Royal Park

The Royal Parks stay open on Christmas Day and a walk through one is what most Londoners do between lunch and the Christmas television. St James’s Park takes you past Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards, Regent’s Park is quiet and enormous, Greenwich Park has the view down over the river, and Richmond Park has the deer.

Beyond the Royal Parks there is Hampstead Heath, Kensington Gardens, Battersea Park, Victoria Park and Crystal Palace Park. The sensible choice on a day with no transport is whichever one is nearest your hotel.

Watch the Peter Pan Cup race

Winter Wonderland is closed on 25 December, but Hyde Park has another spectacle that morning. At 9am the members of the Serpentine Swimming Club race 100 yards across the lake for the Peter Pan Cup, whatever the weather, as they have every Christmas morning since 1864. J M Barrie presented the first cup in 1904, which is where the name comes from.

Only members swim, so this is one to watch from the bank with a hot drink. It is free, it is over in a few minutes, and it is a very London way to start Christmas Day.

3 things to do in London on Boxing Day

On Boxing Day (26 December) London starts up again: the Tube and buses run a reduced service, most shops and many attractions reopen, and the markets and ice rinks are back. It is still a bank holiday, so it is busier and slower than a normal day, but it feels like a city again.

Book a Boxing Day lunch or a panto

Boxing Day is the day to do the things that are either sold out or eye-wateringly expensive on 25 December. Restaurants and pubs serve a festive menu at something closer to normal prices, and the Boxing Day matinee is the pantomime performance every London family wants, so both are worth booking as soon as you have your dates.

Bag a bargain in the Boxing Day sales

The big sales start on Boxing Day, and Oxford Street, Regent Street and the department stores open early for them. Harrods and Selfridges draw queues before the doors open.

If a bargain is the point, go first thing; if it isn’t, the West End is far more pleasant after lunch when the first rush has passed. A few smaller shops stay closed on the 26th, so it is worth checking if there is somewhere particular you want.

What is open in London over Christmas

Christmas Day

• Transport – There is no public transport at all on Christmas Day: no Tube, buses, DLR, Overground, Elizabeth line, trams, river buses or National Rail. Black cabs run in small numbers at higher fares, Santander cycles work as normal, and everyone else walks, which is worth remembering when you choose your hotel.
• Attractions – The Tower of London, the British Museum, the National Gallery, the London Eye, Kew, Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s (except for services) are all closed. The Royal Parks are open, the Christmas lights are on, and the streets are as empty as you will ever see them.
• Restaurants and pubs – Most restaurants are closed. Hotels serve their guests, a number of pubs open for a pre-booked lunch, and Chinatown near Leicester Square usually has a few places open. Anything you want on the day needs booking well ahead.
• Museums – Closed, including the British Museum, V&A, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Imperial War Museum and National Maritime Museum. Most stay closed on Boxing Day too.
• Shops – Closed by law, apart from small convenience stores.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is a normal day until the evening. Shops and most attractions close early, the Tube winds down from around 7 pm, and there is no Night Tube and no night bus service into Christmas morning. If you are going to Midnight Mass, plan to walk back.

Boxing Day

• Transport – The Tube, buses, DLR and trams run a reduced, roughly Sunday-level service. National Rail is severely limited, with some operators running nothing at all, so a day trip out of London on Boxing Day is not realistic.
• Attractions – Many reopen, including the London Eye, Winter Wonderland, the ice rinks and Christmas at Kew. The Tower of London and most museums stay closed until 27 December, so check before you set out.
• Restaurants and pubs – Pubs are open as normal and most restaurants reopen, though a table for Boxing Day lunch still needs booking.
• Shops – The big stores and the West End open for the sales, often early. Some smaller shops take the day off.

Our guide to where to stay in London is worth a read with all of this in mind: over Christmas, a central hotel you can walk from is worth more than at any other time of year.

Which Christmas things to do in London are for you?

If we had to pick, it would be the lights walk on the first evening, Christmas at Kew or the Southbank market on a weeknight, a panto, and Christmas lunch on the river on the day itself. The rest depends on who you are travelling with and how much of a rush you want the trip to be.

The two things that make the biggest difference are booking anything for 25 or 26 December before the end of October, and staying somewhere central enough to walk from on Christmas Day. Get those right and London at Christmas looks after itself.

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

• Where to find the best Christmas lights in London
• New Year’s Eve in London
• Events in London in December
• Visiting London in winter
• 22 best Christmas tours in London