Around the world, people are celebrating the holiday season with light. Let’s get in the spirit, and look at some of the most famous, most celebrated light displays around the world:
The National Christmas Tree
Right on the White House lawn, this tree has been a tradition since Calvin Coolidge in 1923. This year’s tree is lit with 450 LED light strings.
Christmas In The Tropics
From Nov. 20 – Jan. 2, Orchard Road and Marina Bay in Singapore’s shopping district are illuminated in living color.
The Cavalcade Of Lights
Each year since 1967, Toronto has done it up big for the holidays. This year, the Nathan Phillips Square and the giant tree are lit by 300,000 LEDs from Nov. 17 – Jan. 1.
The City Of Lights
Yes, that’s what we call Paris year-round, but the lights on the Champs-Elysees and around the city this season sprinkle the whole place with a little extra magic.
Christmas Street
This is the 65th year the residents of 34th Street in Baltimore have gone all-out. Tourists flock from the ends of the earth to see how each home is decorated in the homeowner’s unique style.
The Kobe Luminarie Festival
After the earthquake in Kobe, Japan in 1995, Italy donated thousands of hand-painted, intricate light bulbs to the city. This gothic-style display was designed by Valerio Festi and Hirokazu Imaoka, and was on display Dec. 1-12.
Disneyland
Nothing screams “ICON!” louder than Disney, except maybe Disney at Christmastime. Sleeping Beauty’s Castle is the giant centerpiece of an intensely bedecked park this year, with snow-capped turrets, twinkling lights, shimmering icicles, and of course, a fireworks show.
Christmas Lights Fiesta
From Dec. 3 – Jan. 19, the thoroughfares, roads, and parks of Medellin, Colombia are covered in thousands of fairy lights. The most impressive displays are down Avenue la Playa and the Medellin River.
An Old World Christmas
Vienna, Austria is dripping in twinkly lights from mid-November through Christmas day. The famous shopping streets, Graben and Kärntnerstrasse host some of the city’s most dazzling light displays.
CAA Winter Festival Of Lights
In Niagara Falls, Ontario, you can see the majestic falls illuminated, along with 125 animated light displays part of the 5K route around Niagara Park. The famous falls were first lit in 1860!
Rockefeller Center
Of course, I couldn’t have a list of iconic holiday displays without one of New York’s biggest landmarks! This year’s tree is an 80-foot Norway Spruce lit with 30,000 LEDs.
Which one of these would you most like to see in person? Can you think of any I didn’t mention?
Thanks for the illuminations, enjoyed seeing them. Remember when TV showed New Years celebrations from all over the planet? Why can’t they do that every year. Times Square gets a bit boring after all my years!
All the best, Mark