Christmas in Downtown San Francisco

Downtown San Francisco does Christmas better than it gets credit for. The rink goes up in Union Square, the Ferry Building gets projected on, and the Financial District stops being an office district for about six weeks.

Here is what is confirmed for this season, with dates, and what has not been announced yet.

Confirmed for 2026

What	When	Cost
Union Square Ice Rink	4 November 2026 to 18 January 2027, 60 minute sessions, 10am to 11pm daily	$22 with skate rental, $17 for 8 and under
Macy's and SF SPCA holiday windows	20 November to 31 December 2026, Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 5pm	Free
Let's Glow SF	4 to 13 December 2026	Free

The rink closes early on New Year's Eve, at 9:30pm, and Macy's is shut on 26 November and 25 December, so the windows are dark those two days.

Let's Glow SF is the one people underrate. It projects onto six downtown buildings including the Ferry Building and Salesforce Tower, it is free, and the Ferry Building end of it is a few minutes' walk from Front Street. Ten nights only.

Special nights on the rink

• Drag on Ice, Thursday 3 December, 6:30pm to 8pm, $35
• Silent Skate, Thursday 10 December, sessions at 7pm and 8:30pm, $35
• Polar Bear Skate, Friday 1 January 2027, 2:30pm to 3:30pm, $30

Not announced yet

Worth knowing so you do not plan around a date that does not exist:

• The Union Square tree lighting has not been announced for 2026. Last year it was 11 November, so late November is a reasonable guess, but it is a guess.
• The Embarcadero Center lighting has no published date.
• Winter Walk SF on Stockton Street is confirmed to be happening, but the dates are not out. In 2025 it ran 13 to 24 December.

The downtown Christmas day plan

Union Square and the Financial District are a ten minute walk apart, which most visitors do not realise. A sensible run of it:

1. Rink first, because sessions sell out and the light is better early.
2. Macy's windows on the way out of the square, which takes fifteen minutes and costs nothing.
3. Walk down toward the water as it gets dark.
4. Let's Glow SF at the Ferry Building if you are here in that first fortnight of December.
5. Eat in the Financial District, where you can actually get a table in December, rather than circling Union Square with a forty minute wait.

Where Harrington's fits

Harrington's has been at 245 Front Street since 1935, which is a lot of Decembers. Three connected rooms, a proper fire-lit pub feel on the Dark Side, and a kitchen that keeps going while the shopping crowd is still looking for somewhere with space.

We are a few minutes from the Ferry Building end of Let's Glow SF and about ten from Union Square. Open Monday to Friday, 10am to midnight.

See the menus

Company Christmas parties

December dates downtown go early, and the weekends go first. If the office party is still unbooked, it is worth a conversation now rather than in the first week of December.

We keep weekends free for private buyouts, which means a Saturday gets you the whole building with nobody else in it.

See holiday party options

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Sources: Union Square Ice Rink, SF holiday lights guide.