Christmas in London: lights, skating, carols and the New Year fireworks

The West End lights

London’s Christmas begins in the West End. The great arcs of angels over Regent Street are the city’s most photographed decorations, and Oxford Street, Carnaby Street, Covent Garden and the Mayfair streets around Bond Street follow with their own displays. The lights traditionally go on in early November and stay up until early January.

Covent Garden is at its loveliest in December, with a giant tree on the piazza and the market halls hung with decorations. Our advice: walk the lights after dark on a weekday evening, from Oxford Circus down Regent Street to Piccadilly Circus, then cut through Soho to Covent Garden.

Mayfair & Marylebone →   Soho & Covent Garden →

Skating at Somerset House

Skate at Somerset House returns from 11 November 2026 to 10 January 2027, in the 18th-century Edmond J. Safra Fountain Court on the Strand, where skaters circle a 40ft Christmas tree. Sessions are timed and sell out, especially the evening Skate Lates, so book as early as you can on somersethouse.org.uk.

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland

London’s biggest Christmas fair fills Hyde Park from Thursday 19 November 2026 to Sunday 3 January 2027, open every day except Christmas Day. Entry is by pre-booked one-hour time slot, and the organisers advise booking ahead for weekends and the school holidays. Expect rides, shows, food and drink stalls and the Magical Ice Kingdom.

The Trafalgar Square tree

Every year since 1947 the city of Oslo has sent London a Norwegian spruce for Trafalgar Square, in gratitude for Britain’s support during the Second World War. It stands in the square from early December until Twelfth Night, 6 January, decorated in the Norwegian way with vertical strings of white lights, and carol singers gather beneath it through December.

Carols and services

St Paul’s Cathedral holds its Christmas Carol Services at 4pm on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 December 2026; places are by ticket, released through the cathedral. Midnight Eucharist begins at 11pm on Christmas Eve, and the Choral Eucharist at 11am and Festal Evensong at 3pm on Christmas Day need no ticket. Westminster Abbey and the capital’s other great churches publish their own programmes in the autumn.

The City & Southwark →

New Year’s Eve on the Thames

The fireworks over the London Eye are one of the world’s great New Year’s Eve displays. The official viewing areas along Victoria Embankment, between Westminster Bridge and Temple, are ticketed, and tickets are sold only through Ticketmaster: a first release went on sale on 23 October, with a second batch promised later in the year. Entry to the viewing areas is from 8pm to 10.30pm.

Our advice: if you would rather not stand on the Embankment, book a river-view dinner or a hotel room facing the Thames well ahead; they are among the first tables in London to go.

Questions and answers