What Date Do The Christmas Lights Go On In Paris?

The garlands go up on the Champs-Élysées in early September, weeks before anyone thinks about winter coats. The switch-on itself is a different matter. Last season the avenue lit on Sunday November 16 and stayed lit until Sunday January 4, and the City of Paris has not yet announced the 2026 date. This page sets out what is confirmed, what is still open, and how to plan around a date that lands, reliably, in the middle of November. For the fuller festive picture, the guide to Paris Christmas market start dates covers which stalls open around that same mid-November window.

What Date Do The Christmas Lights Go On In Paris?

The 2026 switch-on date is not announced yet. Last season the Champs-Élysées lights went on on Sunday November 16 and ran to Sunday January 4, and the pattern in recent years points to a mid-November switch-on again. The garlands are installed from early September, but the first illumination is a city event, usually a Sunday evening in mid-November.

The City of Paris confirms the details of each season on its own site, and the 2026 edition has no published switch-on date, no confirmed lighting schedule and no named guest to press the button. What the city has published is the installation timeline: crews begin hanging the garlands on the avenue in early September, which is why visitors in autumn see the scaffolding and wiring well before a single bulb glows. The official illuminations page is where the switch-on announcement lands, typically a few weeks ahead.

The honest planning advice is simple. If your trip falls in the first half of November, treat the lights as possible but not promised. If it falls from the third week of November through early January, the odds are strongly in your favour. Anyone booking flights around a specific switch-on night should wait for the city's announcement rather than guessing at a date that has not been published.

There is a second reason to hold off on locking plans to the switch-on night itself. The first evening is a local event, crowded, televised and busy along the whole length of the avenue, and the display looks identical on every night that follows. A visitor who arrives a week later sees the same 400 lit trees, the same 17:00 switch-on and the same 18:30 show, with a fraction of the crowd. The switch-on matters as a calendar marker, not as a better viewing experience.

The table below sets out what is and is not confirmed for the 2026 season, so you can see at a glance which dates are safe to plan around and which are still open.

What Time Do The Champs-Élysées Lights Come On Each Evening?

Last season the lights came on at 17:00 every evening, the same moment the early December sunset lands, and switched off at midnight on weekdays and 1:00 at weekends. On December 24 and December 31 they stayed on all night. A 6 minute 35 second son et lumière show ran daily at 18:30.

The 17:00 switch-on is the detail most visitors miss. Sunset in Paris sits at about 16:55 in early December and 17:02 on December 31, so the avenue reaches full glow within minutes of the sky going dark. That alignment is deliberate: the 400 illuminated trees along the avenue, all running on LED, are timed to the winter evening, not to a fixed tourist schedule. The practical upshot is that there is no benefit to arriving at 19:00 or 20:00 for the "light-up moment", because it has already happened two or three hours earlier, quietly, while most visitors were still at dinner.

The 18:30 show is the second thing worth timing a visit around. Last season it ran once a day, lasted just under seven minutes, and turned the avenue into a synced light and sound display. Arriving by 18:15 gave a spot with a view down the tree line. On Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve the all-night illumination changed the calculus entirely: the avenue became a late-evening destination, and the crowds on the 24th, with shops open late and families out after dinner, thinned out after 22:00 (see Christmas Crowds).

The weekend extension matters too. With the lights off at midnight on weekdays but 1:00 on Friday and Saturday nights, a weekend visit buys an extra hour of lit avenue after the restaurants empty out. That late window, between about 22:30 and the switch-off, is the quietest lit stretch of the whole season: the tour buses have gone, the shoppers have gone, and the avenue is down to locals walking home under the garlands.

If seeing the lights from a vehicle appeals more than walking the length of the avenue, the roster has three formats worth comparing. The Tootbus open-top Christmas loop covers the illuminated quarters from a heated deck, from $37 per person, 4.0 from 1,369 reviews, with free cancellation. A private 2CV convertible tour does the same streets at street level, from $258 per vehicle for up to three people. A small-group walking tour adds a guide's commentary and a hot chocolate stop, from $78 per person. The comparison below shows how the three formats differ on the things that actually decide the evening.

When Do The Paris Christmas Lights Go Off?

Last season the Champs-Élysées lights ended on Sunday January 4, and the pattern for other displays is the same: the first weekend of January. The Eiffel Tower's golden lighting and hourly sparkle are year-round and do not stop in January. The 2026 end dates are not announced yet.

The first Sunday in January is the traditional cut-off. It is also the weekend when the city feels most transitional: the markets are packing up, the department store windows come down within days, and the lights run their final evenings for a local crowd rather than a festive one. A trip in the first week of January still catches the glow, but the surrounding programme, markets, fairgrounds and window displays, is already closing around it. For the fuller picture of what the season offers beyond the lights, our guide to how Paris celebrates Christmas covers the markets, window displays and midnight mass.

One distinction matters here. The seasonal illuminations, the avenue garlands, the department store tree, the market chalets, all end in early January. The Eiffel Tower's own lighting is not seasonal at all. The golden glow runs from dusk until 23:45 every night of the year, and the five-minute sparkle fires every hour on the hour until 23:00, a schedule the official tower site confirms with no winter change. A visitor arriving in late January misses the Champs-Élysées but not the tower.

The gap between the two calendars is worth planning around. The first ten days of January are, in effect, a bonus window: hotel rates drop after the New Year peak, the avenue is still lit through the first weekend, and the tourist crowds have thinned dramatically. Anyone flexible on dates who wants the lights without the December crush should look hard at that first week, with the caveat that the market chalets and the department store windows may already be gone. For a fuller picture of how the shoulder season stacks up against the holiday rush, the cheapest month to visit Paris for hotel rates explains where the real bargains fall.

For a street-level, open-air view of the final lit evenings, the private 2CV tour is the format that fits best. The convertible roof, the slow pace and the pickup at your hotel make it a two-hour circuit of the lit streets without any walking in the cold, from $258 per vehicle for up to three people, 4.8 from 62 reviews.

Where Are The Other Illuminated Streets And Windows In Paris?

The confirmed 2026 illuminations beyond the avenue are the La Défense market from November 12 and Disney Enchanted Christmas from November 7. The Galeries Lafayette windows and tree ran November 12 to January 4 last season, and the 2026 dates are not announced. Avenue Montaigne, Rue Saint-Honoré and Place Vendôme light in the same mid-November window.

The city's lighting footprint is wider than one avenue. Avenue Montaigne, a short walk from the Champs-Élysées, runs its own upmarket garland scheme. Rue Saint-Honoré and Place Vendôme light their corners in the same window, and the Marais and Montmartre carry smaller, neighbourhood-scale displays. None of these has a published 2026 date; all of them follow the same mid-November to early-January rhythm as the main avenue.

The department store windows are the other half of the display. The Galeries Lafayette Haussmann windows and giant tree ran from November 12 to January 4 last season, with a rooftop ice rink from December 1 to January 4, and the store has not yet announced the 2026 edition. Printemps Haussmann has no official 2026 information published either. The windows are free to view, which makes them the default evening activity for families with children, and the crowds around the Haussmann storefronts on weekend evenings reflect that.

A sensible walking route ties the displays together without retracing steps. Start at Place Vendôme, walk east along Rue Saint-Honoré toward the Tuileries, cut through to the avenue for the tree line, then finish at Avenue Montaigne or, in the other direction, at the department stores on Boulevard Haussmann. That is roughly an hour and a half of lit streets on foot, and it is the spine most guided walks follow. The walking-tour format suits this cluster of displays best, since the windows, the avenue and the side-street garlands sit within a 30-minute walk of one another. The small-group walk with a local guide covers the lit streets with a hot chocolate stop, from $78 per person, 4.7 from 13 reviews, meeting at 36 Rue Étienne Marcel in the 2nd arrondissement.

Does The Eiffel Tower Have Special Christmas Lights?

No. The Eiffel Tower's lighting is identical in December and in July: golden illumination from dusk until 23:45, and a five-minute sparkle every hour on the hour until 23:00. There is no Christmas-specific light show, no extra sparkle on December 25 and no change to the schedule over the holidays.

This is the most common misconception the question produces. The tower looks more festive in December because everything around it is festive, and because the 17:00 darkness means the golden lighting starts while people are still out walking. But the schedule itself is a year-round one, set by the energy-saving plan in place since 2022, with the full lighting switched off at 23:45 regardless of season. The first sparkle of a December evening lands at about 18:00, an hour after nightfall.

The practical consequence is that the tower does not need to be part of a Christmas lights itinerary at all, or rather that it is always part of one. A visitor standing on the Trocadéro at 18:00 in December sees the sparkle against a fully dark sky, with the seasonal garlands of the surrounding streets behind them. The same visitor in June sees the same sparkle at 23:00 against a sky that never fully darkens.

The tower's constancy actually helps with the unanswered 2026 dates elsewhere. Whatever the switch-on date turns out to be, and whenever the avenue garlands come down in January, the tower's dusk-to-23:45 golden lighting and the hourly sparkle are fixed points. An itinerary built around the tower at 18:00 works on November 5 and on January 30 equally well, which is why the tower is the reliable half of any December evening plan while the seasonal displays are the variable half.

Do The Lights Run On Christmas Day And New Year's Eve?

Yes, and last season the Champs-Élysées lights stayed on all night on both December 24 and December 31, the only two dates with all-night illumination. The New Year's Eve programme on the avenue, pedestrianised from 19:00 with video mapping on the Arc de Triomphe and midnight fireworks, ran last season; the 2026 programme is not announced.

The all-night illumination is the detail that shapes both evenings. On Christmas Eve the avenue becomes a slow-moving promenade after dinner, with the lights on until morning and the shops open late. On New Year's Eve the same all-night lighting underpins the public celebration: last season the avenue opened to pedestrians from 19:00, the video mapping on the Arc de Triomphe began about 23:50, and fireworks followed at midnight, free to attend. Whether the 2026 edition repeats that format, and whether the large concert element returns after it was cancelled by the police prefecture in the last edition for crowd-safety reasons, is not announced.

Planning around the 31st has one extra layer: transport. Last season the metro ran free from 17:00 on December 31 to 12:00 on January 1, with many lines running all night, and extended hours on the December 24 night. That scheme is not confirmed for 2026. Anyone booking a dinner or a show for the 31st should check the transport plan closer to the date, and note that the roster's New Year's Eve options are the dinner and cabaret products that run that night, not lights-specific ones.

Christmas Day itself is quieter but not dark. The avenue lights run their normal 17:00-to-midnight weekday schedule, the tower sparkles on the hour as always, and the streets between them are largely empty because most of the city is at home or at church. For visitors in Paris on the 25th, the lit avenue after dark is one of the few things that costs nothing, needs no booking and is guaranteed to be running. If you'd rather do something more active than stroll, the ice skating rinks open over the Christmas season are another free or low-cost option that keeps running through the holidays.

For a fuller rundown of the evening, the New Year's Eve in Paris guide covers what runs on the 31st and what does not. For the daytime gap on the 25th, when most of the city closes, the what is open on Christmas Day piece is the companion read. The lights themselves are one of the few things that need no ticket, no reservation and no planning beyond a warm coat, which is why Christmas In Paris treats them as the backbone of every December itinerary.

Common Questions About Paris Christmas Lights

What Date Do The Christmas Lights Go On In Paris?

The 2026 switch-on date is not announced. Last season the Champs-Élysées lit on Sunday November 16 and ran to Sunday January 4, and recent seasons point to a mid-November date again. The city publishes the switch-on on its official illuminations page, typically a few weeks ahead.

What time do the Champs-Élysées lights come on?

Last season they came on at 17:00 daily, matching the December sunset at about 16:55. They switched off at midnight on weekdays and 1:00 at weekends, and stayed on all night on December 24 and 31. A son et lumière show ran daily at 18:30.

When do the Paris Christmas lights go off?

Last season they went off on Sunday January 4, and the other displays follow the same first-weekend-of-January pattern. The 2026 end date is not announced. The Eiffel Tower's own lighting is year-round and does not stop in January.

Does the Eiffel Tower have special Christmas lights?

No. The tower's golden lighting runs from dusk until 23:45 year-round, with a five-minute sparkle every hour on the hour until 23:00. There is no Christmas-specific schedule change.

Are the Christmas lights free to see in Paris?

Yes. The avenue illuminations, the side-street garlands and the department store windows all cost nothing to view. The paid options are the tours that drive or walk you past them, from the $37 open-top bus loop to the $258 private 2CV circuit per vehicle.

Do the lights stay on all night on New Year's Eve?

Last season, yes: the Champs-Élysées lights ran all night on December 24 and December 31, the only two all-night dates. The 2026 New Year's Eve programme on the avenue, including the fireworks and the pedestrianisation from 19:00, is not announced yet.