The lights, and a 90-minute walk
Each of the West End’s displays is switched on in November, ahead of the month itself. Carnaby Street goes first, on Wednesday, November 4. Regent Street follows on Thursday, November 5, the 70th year of its lights. Oxford Street follows on Monday, November 9, from 4:30 p.m., and Covent Garden on Thursday, November 12, with a 50-foot Norwegian spruce on the Piazza.
Two of the quieter streets follow. Marylebone Village switches its lights on at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 11, on Devonshire Street, after an afternoon of performances from 3:00 p.m., and Bond Street lights up on Thursday, November 12. None of the six says when its lights come down, so anyone arriving after Christmas should ask before building a visit around them.
The walk
The lights are best seen on foot, after dark, which in December means from about 4:00 p.m. This walk takes about 90 minutes with time to stop, from the side streets to the grand ones and on to the Piazza.
- Begin on Carnaby Street, and walk its length under the lights.
- Turn on to Regent Street and follow its curve south to Piccadilly Circus.
- Walk along Piccadilly to Fortnum & Mason, and look at the windows.
- Come back east through Leicester Square, where the rink and the market are open in the evening.
- Finish in Covent Garden, under the spruce, in time for dinner.
On a Thursday in November or December, the walk ends with Covent Garden’s Festive Thursdays, and from December 4 there is snowfall on the Piazza every hour from midday to 9:00 p.m.
The windows and the stores
The four great stores each set their own calendar, and not all of them publish it.
Fortnum & Mason says its windows are usually unveiled towards the end of October, on or just after Halloween, so they are in place for the whole of December. It does not publish its December hours for Piccadilly in a form I could read, and I would check them nearer the time.
Liberty publishes its Christmas hours: Christmas Eve from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Sunday, December 27, from 11:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., December 28 to 30 from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and New Year’s Eve from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Its Christmas Shop on the fourth floor is open now.
Harrods gives its standard hours, Monday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and says of its Christmas events only that more is to come. Selfridges keeps its Christmas opening hours on its own site, and I read them with each booking rather than set them down here.
None of the four has published the date its 2026 windows are unveiled, beyond Fortnum’s usual timing. For a household that wants to shop rather than look, I plan the stores for weekday mornings, and Harrods is under a minute’s walk from Bvlgari Hotel London.
Write to Jess Tell me your December dates, and I will plan the evenings around them.
Kew, Winter Wonderland and the rinks
Christmas at Kew, the evening light trail through the gardens, runs from Friday, November 13, 2026, to Sunday, January 3, 2027. It is closed on November 16, 23 and 28 and on Christmas Day. Entry is by timed session, from 4:20 p.m. to 7:40 p.m., and tickets are booked in advance; once bought, they cannot be exchanged, so I settle the evening before I book it.
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland is open from November 19, 2026, to January 3, 2027, every day except Christmas Day, from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on most days and opening later on some December days. Every visitor needs a ticket for a booked date and a one-hour arrival slot, the off-peak slots included.
Skating
Skate at Somerset House runs from November 11, 2026, to January 10, 2027, in the courtyard on the Strand. The courtyard is open to everyone, and skating is by a booked session.
Leicester Square has a rink with a Christmas market beside it, from October 31, 2026, to January 3, 2027. From November 27 it is open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; on Christmas Eve it closes at 6:00 p.m., it is closed on Christmas Day, and on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day it opens at midday. The rink that used to stand outside the Natural History Museum has closed.
Markets
London’s Christmas markets are small affairs, and the best of them sit beside something else worth seeing.
The Winter Market on the South Bank runs from November 2 to January 4, daily from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and is closed on December 25 and 31. It runs along the river by the Southbank Centre, a short walk from The Savoy across Waterloo Bridge. The dates come from the South Bank’s business district site, because the Southbank Centre’s own page would not load when I checked.
Covent Garden has not published a Christmas market for this year. What it has published is the decoration of the market hall, the spruce on the Piazza from November 12, and the hourly snowfall from December 4 to 31, which together do much the same work.
The market beside the Leicester Square rink is open in the evening, which makes it the natural stop on the lights walk. It does not publish separate dates from the rink.
Write to Jess The Nutcracker, Kew and the carols all book up. Write early, and I hold the evenings for you.
Music and carols
December is when London’s churches are at their fullest, and each of the great ones works in its own way.
St Paul’s Cathedral
At St Paul’s, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols is on Saturday, December 12, at 5:00 p.m., with no ticket needed. Family Carols, on Saturday, December 19, at 11:00 a.m., is by ballot. The Christmas Carol Services on December 23 and 24, both at 4:00 p.m., need a ticket, and the cathedral’s Christmas questions page says the ballot will open in November, with two tickets for each successful entry and doors open an hour before. Midnight Eucharist on Christmas Eve, at 11:00 p.m., and on Christmas Day the Choral Eucharist at 11:00 a.m. and Festal Evensong at 3:00 p.m., need no ticket at all.
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey releases tickets for its services of Lessons and Carols on Monday, November 16, with a second release on Wednesday, November 18. Its questions page says that Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols, Midnight Mass and the Christmas Day Sung Eucharist all need a ticket, booked through Eventbrite. The Abbey has not yet published its Christmas Day times.
St Martin-in-the-Fields
St Martin-in-the-Fields, on the corner of Trafalgar Square, has the fullest December of all. Carols by Candlelight is on December 1, 6, 12, 13 and 16 at 7:30 p.m. Nine Lessons and Carols is on Sunday, December 13, at 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. The Sixteen sing Handel’s Messiah on Thursday, December 10, at 7:00 p.m. On Christmas Eve there are carol services at 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and Midnight Mass at 11:00 p.m., and on Christmas Day the Eucharist is at 10:30 a.m.
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall’s own pages would not load when I checked. The Royal Choral Society says its Carols at the Royal Albert Hall runs across six days with 15 performances, without giving the dates, so I confirm them with each booking.
The Nutcracker, twice, and the pantomime
London has two Nutcrackers in December, and they suit different evenings.
The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker, in Peter Wright’s production, plays at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden from December 3, 2026, to January 13, 2027. It is the grander evening of the two, and it pairs with dinner in Covent Garden afterwards.
English National Ballet’s Nutcracker plays at the London Coliseum, just off Trafalgar Square, from December 17, 2026, to January 10, 2027, with matinees on most days. Children under five are not usually admitted, so for the youngest I look at the dates and the age together before choosing.
For the pantomime, the most British of December evenings, the London Palladium stages Cinderella from Saturday, December 5, 2026, to Sunday, January 10, 2027.
I book all three as soon as the dates of the stay are settled, and the weekend matinees close to Christmas first.
Write to Jess From the first night to the last morning, I shape a December stay around your household.
Afternoon tea and the tables to book
The Savoy serves a Festive Afternoon Tea in The Gallery, beneath its glass dome, with seasonal treats, warm scones and Champagne. It has not yet published its December dates or sitting times, and it is booked online through the hotel’s own reservations page. I reserve the table with the room.
When the restaurants open their books
London’s most sought-after restaurants open their books on their own timetables, and for December the dates fall in the summer and early autumn.
- Restaurant Gordon Ramsay takes online bookings up to four months ahead.
- The Clove Club takes bookings up to three months ahead, on a rolling basis.
- Kitchen Table releases a whole month at once, three months ahead.
- Ikoyi releases tables on the 1st of each month at midday, up to two months ahead.
For a stay in mid-December, that means Restaurant Gordon Ramsay opens its book in mid-August. A household that writes to me in November can still have a fine December in London, but the very smallest rooms may already be full.
Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve
In 2026, Christmas Eve is a Thursday, Christmas Day a Friday and Boxing Day a Saturday, so the holiday runs straight into a weekend.
Getting about
Transport for London has not yet published its 2026 Christmas page in a form I could read. Its December 2023 release said there was no service on the majority of public transport on Christmas Day, with taxis, Santander Cycles and some coaches running, and I treat that as the pattern until this year’s Christmas travel page can be read. For Christmas Day itself, I arrange a car and driver.
The museums
The British Museum, the V&A in South Kensington, the Natural History Museum and every Tate gallery are closed from December 24 to 26. The National Gallery is closed on the same three days and on January 1 as well. December 27 to 31 is a good time for them, and they are a welcome indoor day if the weather turns.
New Year’s Eve
The Mayor of London’s fireworks on the Thames are ticketed for everyone, children included. The first tickets went on sale at midday on Friday, October 23, through Ticketmaster only, up to four for each purchase; the date of the second release is not yet published. The viewing areas are divided into six coloured zones, the orange one accessible, and no one can move between zones on the night. Under-16s must be with an adult, and photo identification may be checked.
For a household that would rather watch from indoors, I look at the hotels and the private rooms along the river instead.
Write to Jess Tell me who is travelling, and I will build the days around the youngest and the oldest.
Weather and light
London in December is cool, grey more often than not, and rarely very cold. The Met Office’s averages for Greenwich, for 1991 to 2020, give an average daytime high of about 9 degrees Celsius, an average night-time low of about 4 degrees Celsius, and about 50 hours of sunshine across the whole month.
The days are short. On December 15, 2026, the sun rises at 7:59 a.m. and sets at 3:51 p.m.; on December 21, the shortest day, it rises at 8:03 a.m. and sets at 3:53 p.m., a day of 7 hours and 50 minutes.
That is the case for a December stay rather than against it. The lights are on by mid-afternoon, Kew’s first session begins at 4:20 p.m., and the evening is long enough for a carol service, the ballet and dinner. I plan the days with the museums and the stores in daylight, and everything else after dark.
Pack for rain as well as cold: a warm coat, a scarf, gloves, an umbrella and shoes that cope with wet pavements. Hotels and theatres are well heated, so layers serve better than one heavy jumper.
Where to stay
I recommend two hotels for December in London, and the choice is between the river and the park.
The Savoy is on the Strand, between Covent Garden and the Thames: a short walk from the Royal Opera House, the Coliseum, St Martin-in-the-Fields and Somerset House, and across Waterloo Bridge from the South Bank. It is London’s original grand hotel on the river, opened in 1889, its American Bar has been open since 1893, and its festive afternoon tea is served under the dome of The Gallery. For a December stay built around the theatres and the lights, it is hard to better.
Bvlgari Hotel London is at 171 Knightsbridge, on the edge of Hyde Park and under a minute’s walk from Harrods, with Winter Wonderland across the park and the museums of South Kensington close by. It has 85 rooms and suites, a 25-metre colonnaded pool and a private cinema, which earns its keep on a wet December afternoon. For a family, or for a stay built around the shops and the museums, it is the one I choose.
Write to Jess Write to me with your dates, and I will start with the evenings that sell out first.
A four-night December weekend
This is how I would shape four nights in the second weekend of December 2026, from Thursday, December 10, to Monday, December 14, staying at The Savoy. Every event in it falls on its published date.
- Thursday, December 10. Arrive in the afternoon, settle in, and walk the lights from Carnaby Street to Covent Garden once it is dark. In the evening, The Sixteen sing Handel’s Messiah at St Martin-in-the-Fields at 7:00 p.m., a short walk from the hotel.
- Friday, December 11. A morning at Fortnum & Mason and along Piccadilly while the stores are calm, and festive afternoon tea at The Savoy. In the evening, a timed session at Christmas at Kew, with a car there and back, and a late supper.
- Saturday, December 12. The morning at Somerset House, skating or simply watching from the courtyard. Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols at St Paul’s at 5:00 p.m., with no ticket needed, then The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House on an evening when it is playing.
- Sunday, December 13. A slow morning, then the South Bank’s Winter Market and a walk along the river. Nine Lessons and Carols at St Martin-in-the-Fields at 3:00 p.m. or 5:00 p.m., or Carols by Candlelight there at 7:30 p.m., and dinner at a table booked months before.
- Monday, December 14. One of the great museums in the morning, which are open as usual this far from Christmas, and the car to the airport or the station in the afternoon.
Questions, answered
When are the Christmas lights switched on in London?
In 2026, the lights go on in Carnaby Street on November 4, Regent Street on November 5, Oxford Street on November 9 from 4:30 p.m., Marylebone Village on November 11 at 6:00 p.m., and Covent Garden and Bond Street on November 12.
When do the Christmas lights come down?
None of the organisers has published a date, so if you are visiting after Christmas, it is worth asking before planning around them.
Do I need tickets for the carol services?
It depends on the church. At St Paul’s, A Ceremony of Carols on December 12 needs no ticket, the Carol Services on December 23 and 24 are by a ballot that opens in November, and Midnight Eucharist needs no ticket. At Westminster Abbey, the Christmas services need tickets, released through Eventbrite from November 16. For St Martin-in-the-Fields, book through its own Christmas page.
Is London open on Christmas Day?
Mostly not. In 2023 there was no service on the majority of public transport on Christmas Day, and the British Museum, the National Gallery, the V&A, the Natural History Museum and the Tate galleries close from December 24 to 26. The churches are open for services, and the hotels run their own Christmas Day.
Which Nutcracker is better for children?
They suit different children. English National Ballet at the London Coliseum, from December 17, has matinees on most days but does not usually admit children under five. The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House runs from December 3 to January 13.
How far ahead should I book restaurants for December?
Earlier than for any other month. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay opens four months ahead, The Clove Club and Kitchen Table three months ahead, and Ikoyi releases tables on the 1st of each month, up to two months ahead.
Do I need a ticket for the New Year’s Eve fireworks?
Yes, everyone needs one, children included. They are sold through Ticketmaster only, up to four for each purchase, and the first release went on sale on October 23, 2026.
What is the weather like in London in December?
Cool and often grey: the Met Office’s 1991 to 2020 averages for Greenwich give a daytime high of about 9 degrees Celsius and a low of about 4 degrees Celsius, with about 50 hours of sunshine in the month. The sun sets before 4:00 p.m.
Details checked November 3, 2026, against each organiser’s own website, the Met Office and timeanddate.com. Where an organiser has not yet published something, the page says so rather than guess.