London Christmas Lights Switch-On 2026: Carnaby, Regent Street, Covent Garden Dates

Carnaby Street switches on its Christmas lights on Wednesday 4 November 2026, Regent Street’s lights return from Thursday 5 November and Covent Garden’s switch-on is on Thursday 12 November, according to Shaftesbury Capital’s Soho site, Regent Street Online and Covent Garden. The table below puts every confirmed date in order, with the official source, ticket needs and Eastern Time (ET) for the two events with a published clock time. A printable is further down.

Times on the official pages are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). US clocks fall back on Sunday 1 November, so London is five hours ahead of ET from then on.

When do the London Christmas lights switch on in 2026?

Date	Switch-on	Time	Tickets	US time (ET)	Official source
Wed 4 Nov	Carnaby Street	From 4.30pm	Free switch-on ticket sign-up	11:30 a.m.	Shaftesbury Capital (Soho)
Thu 5 Nov	Regent Street	Not given	Not stated	Not given	Regent Street Online
Wed 11 Nov	Skate at Somerset House opens (to 10 Jan 2027)	Not given	Adults £13 to £28.50, children £11 to £15, plus £1.50 booking fee per ticket	Not given	Somerset House
Thu 12 Nov	Covent Garden	Not given	Not stated	Not given	Covent Garden
Sat 14 Nov	Belfast City Hall	6.30pm to 7.30pm	Ticketed; the council lists it as free	1:30 p.m.	Belfast City Council

The Somerset House row is an ice rink opening, not a lights event, and is listed because it falls in the same week. The ET column is our conversion of the published GMT times.

What has each street announced?

Carnaby Street. Shaftesbury Capital’s Soho site says Carnaby Street “will switch on its colourful 90s-inspired Christmas lights on Wednesday 4 November.” The event runs “from 4.30pm,” and the page offers a free sign-up for switch-on tickets.

Regent Street. Regent Street Online, in a news post dated 1 October 2026, says “the Regent Street lights are returning from Thursday 5th November, with a traffic-free event and evening of exclusive in store experiences.” It does not give a start time.

Covent Garden. The Covent Garden site says “Join us Thursday 12th November for the annual Christmas Lights Switch On in Covent Garden.” It gives no time and adds “Stay tuned for more information.”

When is the Belfast Christmas lights switch-on?

Belfast City Council lists the switch-on for Saturday 14 November 2026, 6.30pm to 7.30pm at Belfast City Hall. It says “this will be a ticketed event,” with tickets from visitbelfast.com from 10am on Tuesday 3 November. The page also labels the event free, so tickets are required even though the council lists it as free. Belfast is on GMT, so 6.30pm is 1:30 p.m. ET.

When is the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree lit?

The 2026 lighting date has not been announced. In 2025, the City of Oslo, which gives the tree, said in a press release on 6 November 2025 that “the lighting ceremony will take place on Thursday, 4 December at 18:00.” That was the first Thursday of December in 2025. The Greater London Authority (GLA) says the tree “remains in Trafalgar Square until just before the Twelfth Night of Christmas.”

Which London and UK switch-ons have no 2026 date yet?

Switch-on	Status
Oxford Street	Not yet announced; its site says dates and illumination times are updated each year
Bond Street	Not yet announced
Leicester Square	Not yet announced
Trafalgar Square tree	Not yet announced
Christmas at Kew	Not confirmed; the official site blocked our automated check
Southbank Centre Winter Market	Not yet announced
Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh	Not yet announced for lights; see our Manchester and Birmingham Christmas markets story for the market dates
Glasgow	Visit Glasgow says it “will be sharing more details soon”

Cardiff is not listed because we could not confirm a date on a council page. None of the streets above has published a date when its lights are switched off.

How can you plan around these dates?

The printable lists the five dated events, with Belfast’s ticket release on Tuesday 3 November. Add them to the November 2026 printable calendar, and the December 2026 printable calendar is ready for the tree date when it comes. For the holiday itself, see when is Christmas Day. Another London event is covered in our Hyde Park Winter Wonderland 2026 story, and the Coca-Cola Christmas truck tour story covers another seasonal date.

We checked the official pages on 29 October 2026 and will update the table when Oxford Street, Bond Street, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square publish 2026 dates.