London’s loveliest Christmas tree displays

The first big Christmas tree to be unveiled this year is St Pancras station's spectacular number. After last year's emerald homage to the Wicked movie, they've gone a bit more trad for 2025 with a installation titled ‘Powered by Dreams’, made in collaboration with Great Ormond Street Hospital. This music box-inspired tree stands a towering 12m high in the centre of the station, adorned with 180m of fairy lights and a spiral of 158 glowing baubles, with an ornamental clockwork winder at the bottom. Just like a traditional music box, the tree gently turns to a soothing tune and is topped by a ballerina (based on a real dancer from the GOSH Charity-funded GOSH Arts programme, who visits children and their families on the hospital wards). 

On the first Thursday in December, a gigantic, tradition-steeped tree will tower over Trafalgar Square. Every year since 1947, Norway has gifted Londoners with a classic Norwegian spruce as a thank you for Britain supporting the country during the Second World War. The tree is typically decorated with long vertical strands of lights, switched in a ceremony with carol singing that's co-hosted by the Lord Mayor and the Mayor of Oslo. 

There’s always something faintly Christmassy about Leadenhall Market, thanks to its Victorian architecture. It really comes into its own once the festive season arrives. This year’s tree is a magnificent specimen as always, standing at 18 feet and decked out in a colour-changing LED display, baubles and more. Head to the market at the right time and you’ll also be dusted with snowfall (twice daily at 12noon and 6pm, throughout the festive season). 

Covent Garden at Christmas is a magical place. The piazza glistens with twinkling lights, Christmas tunes echo out of nearby shops and stalls, and there’s nothing like sipping a hot choccie taking it all in. Capping things off, though, is the gigantic tree that takes centre stage in the piazza and this year will be no different. When we say gigantic, we really mean it – the tree clocks in at 55ft and is covered in more than 30,000 LED lights.

Coal Drops Yard has gone pretty far out with its Christmas tree in the past, with previous designs having incorporated neon light bars, terrariums and even an infinity mirror room. But this year, it’s leaving the gimmicks and modern takes on trees to other areas in London. Instead, the 2025 offering is a 50ft ‘traditional’ tree, elegantly decorated with simple strings of warm lights. It’s a classic for a reason.

King’s Cross is famously the home of Platform 9¾, so it should come as little surprise that it has unveiled a Harry Potter-themed Crimbo tree for the 2025 festive season. The 31-foot-tall spruce is decorated with approximately 800 scarlet and gold baubles (they’re giving Gryffindor) with an owl perched on the top of the tree. At the installation’s base are recreations of shops found in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, and there's even a Honeydukes kiosk where you can pick up wizarding sweet treats, including Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans and bottled Butterbeer.

There's a distinctively Scottish flavour to chic hotel The Ned's Christmas display: it's teamed up with whisky brand The Macallan to create a tree that's draped with red velvet bows, as well as native berries, acorns and foliage inspired by the whisky’s Speyside roots. There are copper baubles to echo the tipple's copper stills, too. The hotel's Library Bar is normally just for members, but in the spirit of festive goodwill it's welcoming whisky fans through its doors to taste a curated list of Macallan-laced cocktails.

King’s Cross, the home of Platform 9¾, has unveiled a Harry Potter-themed Crimbo tree for the 2025 festive season. The 31-foot-tall spruce is decorated with approximately 800 scarlet and gold baubles (they’re giving Gryffindor) with an owl perched on the top of the tree. At the base are recreations of shops found in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, like Ollivander’s wand shop, Tomes and Scrolls bookshop, Gladrags Wizardwear and Owl Post. You can’t go inside any, but there is a Honeydukes kiosk where you can pick up wizarding sweet treats, including Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Butterbeer cookies and bottled Butterbeer.

Champagne brand Charles Heidsieck has put an effervescent spin on festive tradition at grand Belgravia dining spot The Pantechnicon. Gold-hued baubles make it a glamorous spot to enjoy a glass of bubbly after doing some Christmas shopping at the nearby boutiques of Motcomb Street (if budget allows). 

Claridge’s Christmas tree never disappoints. Every year, a different fashion designer is enlisted to create something absolutely stunning and totally festive for the Mayfair hotel, and the results are always breath-taking. In recent years, Louis Vuitton, Diane Von Furstenberg, Jimmy Choo and Dior artistic director Kim Jones have all contributed designs. For 2025, it’s the turn of Burberry’s chief creative officer Daniel Lee. The 16ft fir has been lavishily draped in bows, wild foliage, thistle (a nod to Burberry’s links to the Highlands), brass bells and hand-blown baubles and is surrounded by huge gold chess pieces.  

Every year, London's artists and designers stretch the definition of a Christmas tree as far as they dare, but artist Shane Keeling's unfestively named installation MAS-X.3 takes things to the limits. It's made from shattered white porcelain toy shards reassembled into an abstract spiral, with a yellow orb glowing at the top. This 9ft sculpture will be on display in the hotel's upper foyer, offering a playful comment on festive consumerism.

Nothing screams Christmas like evil science labs and Demogorgons. To mark the release of the fifth and final season of Stranger Things, an ‘Upside Down’ Christmas tree has been unveiled at Waterloo Station with Hawkins-themed baubles and ornaments for commuters to enjoy. (The tree itself isn’t actually upside down unless, of course, you’re standing on your head.)