Seoul lights up for Christmas with Gwanghwamun Market, lantern festival

An aerial view of the Christmas-themed Gwanghwamun Market in Seoul, Dec. 13, 2024. Courtesy of Seoul Tourism Organization

Santa Claus, traditional and LED lanterns and media art are set to light up central Seoul this winter as the city rolls out major Christmas and year-end festivals designed to attract visitors to Gwanghwamun Square and Cheonggye Stream, two of the city’s most symbolic public spaces.

A Christmas tree and lights illuminate Gwanghwamun Market in Seoul, Dec. 17, 2024. Korea Times photo by Choi Heung-soo

Gwanghwamun Square turns into Santa's Village

From Friday to Dec. 31, Gwanghwamun Square will transform into the 2025 Gwanghwamun Market, a European-style Christmas village built around a 15-meter Christmas tree and a newly installed Rudolph carousel.

Now in its fourth year, the market has quickly become one of Seoul’s signature winter attractions, drawing 1.64 million visitors and generating about 700 million won ($476,372) in sales for 141 small businesses over 24 days last winter, according to the Seoul Tourism Organization (STO).

2025 Gwanghwamun Market poster / Courtesy of Seoul Tourism Organization

This year’s concept, "Santa Village in a Winter Fairy Tale," divides the square into three zones — a village entrance, play plaza and village market — filled with more than 10 themed photo spots such as a nutcracker house, gingerbread cookie house and teddy bear photo studio. The market runs in three seasons with rotating vendors, featuring some 100 small business teams selling winter treats, crafts and seasonal goods.

The STO has also brought in global brands to raise the event’s profile. The Walt Disney Company Korea will stage an "Avatar: The Last Air" experience zone that recreates a new ash-covered Pandora tribe, British heritage label Barbour will present a "Wallace and Gromit" Christmas tree and participatory coloring wall, and Nespresso will offer a festive tree and limited coffee tastings.

STO CEO Gil Gi-yeon said this year’s market focuses on immersive, childlike fun. The space is "designed as a city-center Christmas festival where visitors can … feel their inner child and enjoy a warm winter in this special place."

Sculptures of "eosa-hwa" (paper flowers) and "jokduri" (headdress) light up the air above Cheonggye Stream during Seoul Lantern Festival in Seoul, Dec. 17, 2024. Korea Times photo by Choi Heung-soo

Seoul Lantern Festival along Cheonggye and Ui streams

Running on overlapping dates, the 2025 Seoul Lantern Festival will illuminate Cheonggye and Ui streams from Friday to Jan. 4 under the theme "My Light, Our Dream, Seoul’s Magic."

Marking its 17th edition, the festival will showcase more than 400 light sculptures and media artworks in four themed sections, which organizers say will make this the most content-rich edition yet, offering a denser, more immersive night walk stretching from Cheonggye Plaza to Samil Bridge.

2025 Seoul Lantern Festival poster / Courtesy of Seoul Tourism Organization

The first zone, Miracle Seoul, blends traditional hanji lanterns and media art to depict Seoul’s past, present and future – from the first electric lights at Gyeongbok Palace to early trams and imagined future skylines. The second zone, Golden Secret, uses colorful gat-shaped lanterns and LED media to reinterpret K-culture and lifestyles drawn from social media buzzwords and memes.

The Dream Light section showcases collaborations with installation and contemporary artists who use recycled materials such as discarded headlights and waste wood to construct large-scale moon jars, polar bears and fountains.

The final section, Seoul Fantasia, features a 15-meter "Seoul Moon" suspended above the water, featuring Seoul’s mascot Hechi and popular children’s character Teenieping on an imagined space voyage.

The final highlight of the festival is the Aurora segment, which uses more than 30 laser units and carefully controlled fog to produce a three-dimensional light curtain above the stream.