Glasgow’s Christmas Lighting Trail
This Christmas, Glasgow's celebrating 850 years of our amazing city with a trail full of twinkling lights, joyful sights, and festive cheer!
About Glasgow’s Christmas Lighting Trail
| 20th Nov 2025 to 3rd Jan 2026 | |
| The lights will go on at 6pm on 20 November. From 21 November - 3 January the lights will go on at 4pm. | |
| Glasgow City Centre | |
| This is a free event | |
| Visit the event website here |
Image Credit: Kenny Lam - Visit Scotland
Get you in town this Christmas for our Christmas lighting trail!
This Christmas, we’re celebrating 850 years of our amazing city with a trail full of twinkling lights, joyful sights, and festive cheer. Gather your family and friends and follow the glow. Wrap up warm and let the lights lead the way to fun, laughter, and a little bit of Christmas magic.
Trail Launch Night - Thursday 20 November
We're inviting you to join us on Thursday 20 November as we light up the city! You can look forward to roaming festive street performers and a whole load of Christmas cheer from 4.30pm. The lights will be switched on at 6pm.
You'll find our five spectacular attractions and Glasgow's much-loved Christmas lights on Sauchiehall Street, lighting up Buchanan Street, and continuing along Argyle Street. You can watch as the trail is illuminated from anywhere in this area.
The Christmas lighting trail map is available to download now.
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, in the heart of the city, will stop passers-by in their tracks with Constellations, a breathtaking display of colour and light by artist Domme Ewan. The installation transforms the iconic façade into a living night sky, as soft hues of violet, blue, and gold shimmer above Buchanan Street like the Northern Lights over the city. Capturing the wonder of looking up to a winter’s sky, Constellations invites everyone to pause and feel the glow of Christmas under a cosy canopy of light.
Jamie Wardrop’s Let Glasgow Flourish playful installation will be projected inside five windows of the historic Buck’s Head Building on Argyle Street. This animated visual sequence celebrates Glasgow’s natural life with colourful birds and festive evergreens of ivy, pine, and holly. Drawing on the ancient symbols of the city, the bird and the tree, Jamie reconnects these icons of Glasgow’s past with its future as the city marks its 850th anniversary.
At the Mercat Building on High Street, Kate Robinson’s Starry Messengers of Joy will delight visitors with a host of starry angelic figures made of light. Inspired by angels as universal messengers, the installation features hand-drawn, diverse spirits celebrating the elements of air, fire, earth, and water. Drawing on the warm reds, golds, and deep blues of historic manuscripts, with bursts of pink, acid green, and fiery orange, the angels move and change to music. They bring messages of joy, light, love, freedom, peace, and goodwill, illuminating the alcoves of this beautiful building.
As before, the iconic City Chambers will become a beacon of light, featuring a special Glasgow 850 installation with falling snowflakes. When this iconic building glows, it is a joyful signal to everyone that the countdown to Christmas has begun.
This year the Christmas Tree and Crib will be found at the Cathedral Precinct. A lovely, historic setting, perfect for a festive moment of calm beside the sparkling tree lights and nativity scene.
Where possible we will update our listings to notify of cancelled, postponed and rescheduled events, however we STRONGLY ADVISE that you check with the venue/organiser in the first instance for updates.
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