London is officially home to the best Christmas lights display in Europe

London is great for many things, offering up world-class food, theatre and museums, and it by no means takes a break over the festive period. The city offers an abundance of Christmas markets, pop-ups, festive menus (though they can be pretty pricey), and best of all, lights. 

And isn’t just us that thinks London has some of the best Christmas lights around. Ferry and cruise operator DFDS looked at some TikTok stats and concluded that London dazzles ahead of other European cities in terms of both post and view numbers.

In fact, a whopping five different displays across the capital occupied a spot on DFDS’s list of the top ten Christmas lights displays in Europe. The Regent Street Christmas angels alone garnered a whopping 2.3 million views, coming top of the ranking. 

Christmas in Covent Garden came in second place across Europe, gaining 1.4 million views, Oxford Street’s Christmas Lights came fifth, Carnaby Street ranked eighth and Christmas at Kew claimed number ten. That’s five London displays in the top ten! 

And the city is only set to shine brighter with the switch-ons of even more glorious displays over the next couple of weeks – have a look at all the lights switch-on dates to mark in your calendar here. 

The ten best places in Europe to see Christmas light displays, according to DFDS

1. Regent Street Christmas lights, London, 2,300,000
2. Christmas in Covent Garden, London, 1,400,000
3. Brussels by Lights, Brussels, 510,200
4. Christmas at the Botanics, Edinburgh, 195,600
5. Oxford Street Christmas lights, London, 60,800
6. George Square Christmas lights, Glasgow, 39,000
7. Bahnhofstrasse street/Lucy Christmas lights, Zurich, 27,000
8. Carnaby Street Christmas light, London, 26,900
9. Colmar Christmas lights, Colmar, 26,200
10. Christmas at Kew, London, 21,500

You can read the full DFDS study here. 

Christmas in London

At Time Out, we work hard to keep you up-to-date on all the festive happenings across the city – right now, the office is basically Santa’s Grotto 2.0. From the best Christmas shows and carol concerts to watch, to all the best events and essential festive things to do, keep an eye on our Christmas hub for all the capital’s seasonal festivities.

Did you see that after 400 years, street performers could disappear from Covent Garden?

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