Christmas in Paris: The 10 Best Things to See and Do
It’s impossible to deny the joy and spirit everywhere when it's Christmas in Paris. During the December holiday season, the city literally shines, from the lights along the Champs-Élysées to the rainbow-colored tree at Galeries Lafayette to some of the most decked-out window displays in the world. When you’re not outside taking in the festivities, you’ll find that Parisian joie de vivre indoors at tea salons, restaurants, and pastry shops that put out all the stops for the Christmas holiday. If you find yourself visiting Paris in December, add these 10 ideas to your to-do list—they're some of our favorite ways to celebrate Christmas in Paris, a capital that is never short on magic.
This gallery has been updated with new information since its original publish date.
GettyTake in twinkle lights on the Champs-Elysées
After years of being done up in a striking red hue, the most iconic avenue in Paris and its 400 trees have gone back to a slightly more modest look. It’s also more energy efficient: The 100% LED lights on the Champs-Elysées, running all the way up to the Arc de Triomphe, will begin to sparkle at 5:00 p.m. and shut off at midnight—two hours earlier than in previous years (with the exception of December 24 and December 31 when they will remain lit all night long). Other features making a grand return for New Year’s Eve include fireworks and music.
Jean-Baptiste BRUYNOOGHE/SIPAVisit Christmas markets at the Tuileries Gardens and Notre Dame
While there won’t be a Christmas market lining the Champs-Elysées, there are plenty of markets and Christmas villages popping up in other places around town. On the Square René Viviani, directly across from Notre Dame, you’ll find an intimate market with some 30 exhibitors selling regional food, hot chocolate, and handmade crafts. But the bigger market to visit can be found at the Tuileries Gardens until January 7, 2024. There, you’ll discover hundreds of wooden cabins selling small gifts and seasonal treats but a selection of stands run by French artisans, from glass blowers to woodworkers, and designers from the Paris Chamber of Commerce presenting their crafts.
CourtesyLes Productions Biloba/Galeries LafayetteSee the best holiday displays in the world...
There’s a theme for every taste: The BHV/Marais department store has become an enchanted forest this year, with plenty of ateliers and events scheduled inside the store throughout the month. There’s also a Canada-focused travel pop-up on the ground floor with a special selection of Canadian goods and accessories. At the Samaritaine, it’s an indulgent, Willy Wonka vibe that has taken over– thanks largely to a partnership with Warner Bros. But the most impressive displays can be found just behind the Opéra Garnier.
Over at Printemps Haussmann, the legendary actress Catherine Deneuve inaugurated a special display made entirely out of paper by the artist and set designer Mathilde Nivet. Nearly one hundred paper birds have taken up residence in the windows of the shop as the main characters to deliver holiday wishes from around the world. The set was constructed out of wood scraps from old decorations, using 1,500 square meters of recycled or fireproof paper from France and Italy. After the holidays, everything will be recycled at specialized centers in France. And at the Galeries Lafayette, it’s the couturier Charles de Vilmorin and Atelier Bournillat who had carte blanche to come up with a story. He opted to depict a fairytale of a little girl and a magic paintbrush who travel to an imaginary land to discover their dreams. In the shop windows, this journey unfolds through a dozen paintings. Inside, there's no shortage of decorations, and each floor is adorned with enchanted characters, decorations, and twinkle lights.
Voisin Thibaut/Courtesy Galeries Lafayette...and some of the best Christmas trees
Galeries Lafayette's holiday cheer doesn't end at the sidewalk—the Christmas tree and holiday displays beneath the store's Art Nouveau dome is an annual event, comparable to New York City’s Rockefeller Center tree lighting. Always vibrant and impressive, visitors who venture into the atrium of the shop this season will find a towering tree, 15 meters high, done up in whimsical masks, celestial creatures, and sparkling garlands. From the 30-foot-long Glasswalk footbridge, on the third floor of the store, visitors can catch an even better view of the tree—and snap a few photos.
GettyGo ice skating in iconic locations
Until the Grand Palais reopens in 2025 and can once again play host to amateur ice skaters beneath its glass-canopied nave, you’ll have to get your skate on elsewhere. You can do that on a 300-square-meter rink located at the heart of the Christmas village at Trocadéro, complete with a direct view of the Eiffel Tower. Or you can slip on skates in the Tuileries Gardens where an even bigger rink will be set up through early January.
AlamySip hot chocolate from the best
Nothing warms up locals and visitors like hot chocolate. For the most well-known, head to Angelina on the rue de Rivoli for its thick, decadent Chocolat Chaud Africain that will leave you wondering if they just melted an entire chocolate bar into your cup. If the lines snake around the block, take it à emporter. For a sit-down experience, give yourself the gift of chocolatier Jacques Genin’s pure and simple hot chocolate, made from whole milk and dark chocolate pistoles, or make a beeline to Café Pavane, a tea salon from Manon Hévin across from the Luxembourg Gardens. Her chocolatier-pâtissier father, Jean-Paul Hévin, supplies both the pastries and the decadent hot chocolate worth a special visit.
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Aimery CheminDig into the best Bûche de Noël and other sweet treats of the season
More than the decorated avenues and elaborate window displays, it is the Bûche de Noël (yule log cakes that may or may not be shaped like logs) that takes the lead as the ultimate holiday essential during Christmas in Paris. While most cakes are prepared and sold for take-away, there are a few spots to linger over tea and an individual slice of the indulgent Christmas cake.
At the Four Seasons George V, the head pastry chef Michael Bartocetti has created a special seasonal tea-time, offered through January 10 in L’Orangerie, which includes a preview of this year’s bûche served as a plated dessert. It follows with a citrus-geranium vacherin inspired by the work of a ceramicist, a luscious Piedmont hazelnut chocolate tarte coated table-side with Alba white truffles, and a twist on the Stollen, served warm, among other confections. At La Halle aux Grains, the restaurant inside the Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection, Sébastien Bras’ talented pastry chef Jean-Julien Freydt will be serving slices of his hazelnut and buckwheat bûche during tea-time (between 3–6 p.m.), and at lunch and dinner for dessert. If so inclined, you can order a whole buckwheat bûche to take home (we’re sure your hotel won’t mind).
Lucas Carton, one of Paris’s oldest and most celebrated fine dining institutions located on the Place de la Madeleine, will offer a special Christmas tea-time menu on Wednesdays and Saturdays through December—a perfect (and more affordable) opportunity to spend some time in the restaurant’s iconic Art Nouveau dining rooms, complete with wood paneling by Louis Majorelle. And at Butterfly Pâtisserie, the Hôtel de Crillon’s boutique and tearoom, pastry chef Matthieu Carlin’s exquisite selection of seasonal pastries, including his graphic bûche de Noël, designed in collaboration with the interior product designer Victoria Wilmotte, can be enjoyed on-site with a cup of tea or a thick hot chocolate, or taken to-go.
Izzet KeribarExperience high luxury at Place Vendôme
The city’s taste for the grandiose and haute-luxe culminates at Place Vendôme, an early 18th-century square in the 1st arrondissement, just blocks from the river. Established at the behest of Louis XIV, the space remains iconic today as much for the bronze column that looms large at the square’s center as for the high luxury jewelry boutiques and the Ritz Paris hotel that surround it. Any Christmas-lit stroll should begin at the tip of shopping street Rue de la Paix, taking you past Tiffany’s, the Park Hyatt Paris, and Cartier. Continue into the square, and out the other side past Louis Vuitton’s Peter Marino-designed flagship boutique, before passing through the Tuileries Gardens and calling it a night.
NewscomSee the Jardin des Plantes illuminated in a new way
It isn’t the sparkle of holiday lights that has transformed the grounds of the Jardin des Plantes into an illuminated wonderland each night since late November, but rather the glow from hundreds of large scale lanterns in the shape of plants and animal species common to tropical forests. Put on by the National Museum of Natural History, the walk takes guests throughout the park and its menagerie to discover the biodiversity of the tropical rainforests spanning four continents. Jungle en voie d’Illumination, as the installation is called, includes felines, frogs, brilliant flowers, and plenty of other unexpected guests that kids and families will love. Advanced booking required; runs through January 21, 2024.
Nico AlaryHave a French meal
The period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Paris can be tough. Many restaurants close for a much-needed break after a busy year, and those that do stay open tend to run special menus with sky-high prices.
There are a few reliable favorites, however, that keep their regular offering intact and add a festive twist here and there: Au Pied de Cochon offers everything from French onion soup to oysters and pig’s trotter any time of day (it’s among the only 24-hour brasseries in the city); Le Train Bleu, the Belle Epoque jewel inside the Gare de Lyon station will offer a festive menu, and Le Vaudeville, a 100-year-old brasserie institution at the Place de la Bourse, serves an affordable French Christmas feast, complete with fine oysters, scallops, capon with mushrooms and gratin dauphinois, and decadent desserts.
If budget is of no concern, all of the Michelin-starred and fine dining restaurants inside the city’s top hotels, from the Hôtel de Crillon to The Peninsula and the new Grand Mazarin Hotel, will be open and serving their own refined takes on a holiday feast.
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