To coincide with the launch of our newest LED Christmas walkabout act (the only of its kind), we’ve compiled a list of the world’s most unique Christmas lights.
Classic Christmas: Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen
Christmas is truly about children – nothing can beat the pure magic of the festive season as a child. Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen – a 19th century Danish amusement park in the centre of a very cool city – lets you rediscover your inner child. And each year they truly light up for Christmas. Discover a winter wonderland dressed across their lake and old style fairground rides. This is classic Christmas lighting done with a modern twist.
Quirky Christmas Lights: Montpellier’s Festive Palm Trees
In the Mediterranean city of Montpellier, South France, streets are lined with palm trees. But don’t be fooled by their sun soaked summers – Montpellier knows how to celebrate Christmas. The city lights up in true style over their winter festival Les Hivernales, across the breath-taking Place de la Comédie and L’Esplanade, where an 17th century opera house lights up in the winter dusk. However, our favourite light installation is the idea to wrap their palm trees in fairy lights – creating a surprisingly warm Christmasy feeling (without the 30C sun…)
Natural Lighting: The Northern Lights
It seems you just can’t beat nature. Although they aren’t exactly Christmas related, we felt it wrong to celebrate powerful lights without mentioning the Northern Lights. The ‘aurora borealis’ creates a moving night sky of intense lighting, and is formed by highly accelerated particles. You can’t predict when they will appear, the best locations being in Scandinavia and North-West Canada. Explanations for the Northern Lights are always changing with further science research, which makes them one of earth’s most exciting phenomena. Totally unpredictable and wildly beautiful.
Christmas Lights with Power: Kobe Luminarie
Kobe Luminarie was conceived after the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan in 1995, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, and where a devastating number of 105,000 residents lost their lives. After the quake, the Italian government donated thousands of light bulbs to the city. Out of these lightbulbs, city creatives curated this powerful festival of light in commemoration of the lives lost in the earthquake. Over twenty years on, the festival is still growing each year.
Home-Made Lights: Dyker Heights, Brooklyn
Dyker Heights was once just a regular Brooklyn neighbourhood. But since the 1980s, it has transformed into a tourist spot for festive light design. Thousands of tourists flock to the streets each year to wander through a wonderland of houses, designed, built and powered by the residents.