Breaking this to you might not be in the ‘spirit of Christmas’ or whatever, but that little fir tree propped up in your living room is a pretty terrible effort – at least when you compare it to these legends, anyway.
The fact is that there are world-famous Christmas trees all over the planet, acting as huge green beacons of Christmas merriment in piazzas, over markets and slap-bang in the heart of our cities throughout December. But, which is the best of all? Well, we’ve ranked them right here, using data from DIYS and our own Christmas-loving brains. We’ve got a pretty good idea. So, here’s a roundup of the most fantastically glitzy, iconic Christmas trees in the world.
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At Time Out, all of our travel guides are written by local writers who know their cities inside out. For more about how we curate, see our editorial guidelines. This guide includes affiliate links, which have no influence on our editorial content. For more information, see our affiliate guidelines.
Krakow teems with Christmassy spirit all throughout December, and it helps that the city's streets and architecture look just like the brackground of a Christmas card. However, the central square is taken over every year by a charming festive market, the crowning jewel of which is the tree which sits next to the Cathedral.
Okay, it’s not strictly a tree. It’s a load of lighting installed on the slopes of Mount Ingino outside the city of Gubbio, in Umbria, every year. But it certainly looks like a Christmas tree, and is hands down the tallest on this list. That makes it incredibly iconic. First place!
This tree shoots up amid the sprawling Rockefeller complex every year. There are some 54,000 ‘Rockefellerchristmastree’ hashtags currently on Instagram. Iconic.
A lesser-known choice that, for a brief period each year, becomes one of Lithuania’s major tourist attractions, the Christmas tree in Vilnius’s Cathedral Square oftens wins awards for its dazzling light displays.
The world’s largest floating Christmas tree, in Rio de Janeiro’s Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, usually soars 70 metres in the air and is lit up with nearly a million LED lights.
Every year since the mid-’60s, a big tree-lighting ceremony has taken place on Capitol Hill. The trees usually flash in every hue imaginable, and are always suitably OTT.
Mexico City’s major square is adorned in all manner of extravagant lighting and tinsel around Christmastime. At its centre, a 40-metre-high tree towers high above pretty much everything else.
Visitors and locals alike flock to this regal square in the Spanish capital to check out its annual festive light display, which is always centred around a huge, resplendent tree.
The Christmas market of Strasbourg’s Place Kléber is a mammoth attaction in itself, and then there’s the nine-tonne, 30-metre-high tree that looms over it all. Howsabout a winter getaway here in 2021?
Some 8,000 people Google ‘Trafalgar Square Christmas tree’ every month throughout the festive period – and for good reason: it’s always friggin’ beautiful.
Red Square is undoubtedly the most Christmassy place to be in Moscow during winter: there’s a massive ice skating rink, there’s a festive market, and there’s a big ol’ tree too. It’s almost like something from a fairy tale.
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