Christmas in Madrid, with its lighting up, is one of the city’s most special seasons: the Plaza Mayor Christmas market filled with souvenirs, the San Ginés Churrería machinery working at full steam, perfuming the surroundings, trees, many trees, that decorate the city’s key spots and millions of lights that make it look as if it were straight out of a fairy tale. Key locations such as Puerta de Alcalá, Princesa, Gran Vía, the Retiro area, but also iconic buildings like the Royal Palace, the Four Seasons hotel or the Palacio de Cibeles become protagonists for more than a month and a half.
This 2026, the Christmas lights switch-on in Madrid will take place on November 21 at the Plaza de Cibeles, as last year, following an inaugural show without precedent (time still to be confirmed). From that moment, the lights will stay on night after night until Epiphany Day.
Lighting Schedule:
- From Sunday to Thursday: 6:00 PM – Midnight.
- Fridays and Saturdays: 6:00 PM – 1:00 AM.
- December 7: 6:00 PM – 1:00 AM.
- December 24 and January 5: 6:00 PM – 3:00 AM.
- December 31: 6:00 PM – 6:00 AM.
A Christmas in which everyone participates
On this occasion, the city hall will extend its reach to all 21 districts, across 250 locations (10 more than last Christmas), with a total of 14 million bulbs, all of them LED. The city will feature 131 cherry trees and 7,458 garlands, 164 km of lights that equate to the distance between Madrid and Segovia (there and back), in addition to 14 illuminated fir trees, one more than the year before, in Plaza de Cibeles. Along with these, other traditional Christmas motifs will appear in squares, avenues and streets such as the famous Christmas ball in Plaza de España or the giant Menina at Paseo Del Prado.
For the light designs, the municipal organization has drawn on unique proposals: from the youngest participants — primary school students from Madrid’s schools who took part in the contest organized by the City Council for the third consecutive year — to renowned specialists.
