This season the tradition of the Christmas Flower Show continues at the Palm House in the Allan Gardens Conservatory. The entire conservatory is decorated and filled with thousands of flowering plants, over 30 varieties of poinsettia and seasonal topiary masterpieces made entirely of plant material.
In previous years the Conservatory had an event called “Christmas by Candlelight”, but I couldn’t find any confirmation of that happening this year. I have never been to one of those, but apparently it is quite beautiful with the lighted displays sprinkled throughout the conservatory.
I usually pay a visit every Christmas to the Conservatory to take in the Flower Show. The displays were quite sparse this year and I didn’t sense the same care and attention to detail displayed in previous years. Regardless, it’s always restful and calming in the Palm House:
Although the Hudson’s Bay store is now long gone from what was their flagship store at Yonge and Queen, the Christmas windows have been resuscitated. Yes! “The Bay Christmas windows” are back for 2025, courtesy of Cadillac Fairview, and I (along with many, many others) am very happy about this!
Background
On a frigid Sunday evening, December 14, crowds gathered along Yonge Street as Cadillac Fairview officially unveiled the return of Toronto’s iconic holiday windows at the former Hudson’s Bay flagship at Queen and Yonge. For the first time since Hudson’s Bay shuttered its Canadian department stores earlier this year, the illuminated display bays once again glowed with festive scenes, drawing families, tourists, and longtime downtown residents back to a ritual that has defined Toronto’s holiday streetscape for more than a century.
This year’s windows mark both a revival and a reinvention. With the department store behind the glass now closed, Cadillac Fairview has repositioned the historic facade as a leased experiential platform, beginning with a holiday activation by Mars Wrigley Canada. The confectionery giant has taken over seven prominent windows along the Yonge Street side of the building between Queen and Richmond, transforming them into animated tableaux designed to restore a sense of wonder to the corner while signalling a new future for one of the city’s most storied retail landmarks.
Cadillac Fairview, which owns the former Hudson’s Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue complex connected to CF Toronto Eaton Centre, has made clear that the holiday windows are no longer tied to a single department store tenant. Instead, the landlord is treating the building’s extensive street-facing windows along Yonge, Bay, and Richmond streets as a stand-alone experiential and media asset.
Publicly, Cadillac Fairview has framed the initiative as an effort to honour and preserve a cherished Toronto tradition, even as it explores new commercial and cultural uses for the space. Internally, the move also reflects a pragmatic response to the closure of Hudson’s Bay, which left a massive downtown anchor vacant after the retailer filed for creditor protection with more than a billion dollars in debt and failed to secure a buyer.
By reviving the windows, Cadillac Fairview is extracting value from the building’s most visible asset while longer-term redevelopment and re-tenanting plans are evaluated. The Queen Street frontage remains partially blocked due to Ontario Line construction at the intersection, but the Yonge Street run is fully active for the holidays, with additional bays on Bay and Richmond streets being marketed to future partners.
Workers putting finishing touches on one of the display windows.
Although the windows are not as elaborate or intriguing as those in past years, it is wonderful to see that an effort has been made to revive a Christmas tradition at Yonge and Queen Street.
The Fairmont Royal York’s hotel lobby has taken on what hotel staff label a winter wonderland appearance, decorated with reminders of reindeer and other items synonymous with Christmas.
Guests now arriving at the Fairmont Royal York are greeted by pathways lined with Victorian-style lampposts and snow-covered evergreens, creating scenes straight out of a winter fairy tale, along with the Christmas tree framed by elegant drapery and towering nutcrackers. Guests continue their journey through a serene winter garden gazebo or stop for champagne or tea at the hotel’s bustling lobby lounge, “Clockwork“, its white ironwork gates evoking the entrance to a palace. Every vignette is dressed in frosted whites, icy crystals, lush greenery, and glistening snow.
Well, it’s that time again… love it or hate it, we’re on the countdown to Christmas.
I’ve always liked the way Christmas comes together in the city, so this past weekend I took a little walk around a few downtown spots to see how things are ramping up for Christmas. The temperature was -15 with the wind chill so I tended not to linger overly long at any one stop on my wanderings.
Winter Glow 2025
I started my little jaunt at Yonge-Dundas Square (I refuse to call it by that incredibly asinine new name). From December 11th through 21st there is an event on here called Winter Glow 2025.
Winter Glow is in its third year at Yonge-Dundas Square. It’s basically a holiday festivity filled with lights, music, festive flavours, classic rides, and community cheer.
This year, Epilepsy Toronto is the sponsor and presenting partner of Winter Glow. The organization brings a Holiday Market to the Square, filling it with artisan stalls, photo ops, the Polar Point Bar, fire-pits, and photos with Santa. There is also a mini-midway with a carousel and a 45-foot high Ferris wheel:
The Eaton Centre
Directly across the street from the Square is the venerable Eaton Centre. I started on the north end of the mall, making my way south through the masses of shoppers milling about:
Passing through Simons I stopped to appreciate some beautiful music being performed by a trio there:
In the middle of the mall there were several giant reindeer:
Eaton Centre’s massive (114-foot) Christmas tree made a reappearance this year. The ever-enterprising Eaton Centre was offering shoppers to have their picture taken by a professional photographer with the holiday tree as the backdrop (portraits were $10 a pop).
With the giant tree for a backdrop, these two people were getting their selfies high on the walkway above the shoppersThe 114-foot high Eaton Centre Christmas tree. The tree changes colour every few minutes.
Once or twice an hour the tree launches its “Snow Show”, and it snows in the Eaton Centre, like this:
Trinity Square Park
Just out the west door of the mall is Trinity Square Park, home to the Church of the Holy Trinity. Given all the lights in the walkway and trees, I’m sure the area would look much prettier at night, but it was kind of interesting in the daylight, nonetheless:
Brookfield Place
I have shot Brookfield Place (181 Bay Street) many, many times but have never tired of it. The Allen Lambert Galleria is simply one of the most magnificent backdrops in downtown Toronto. That beautiful, arched, soaring ceiling is a photographer’s dream.
This year they have an installation entitled Snowfall: Frost, created by Studio F Minus. The work is inspired by the architectural motif of the Allen Lambert Galleria, the geometry of a single snowflake, and the allure of a freshly frosted-over window pane.
Studio F Minus took the fractal pattern and applied the concept to the construction of snowflakes in nature. Beginning with a “Y” shape drawn from the Galleria, then repeating and rotating that shape to create a new crystalline structure. There was a sign for visitors to Brookfield Place, which encouraged them to touch Snowfall: Frost. When a hand is run along the sculpture it casts a shadow in the field of light, the same way you leave a trail when drawing on a frosted window:
Continuing eastward through Brookfield Place to the Yonge Street side, there was another impressive homage to Christmas:
Berczy Park
Moving on to the Front Street East-Church Street area, I paid a visit to Berczy Park. Someone had adorned the little dogs on the Berczy Park fountain with seasonal scarves. Very cute:
Across from the dog fountain, a Snoopy-like pup kept watch on the visitors:
I was quickly losing the light of the day so I wrapped it up and headed home, passing through Berczy’s seasonal arch on the way to Wellington Street East:
Stay tuned for more posts of Toronto at Christmastime!
At 188 Carlton Street, on the corner of Bleecker Street, sits St. Peter’s Anglican Church, now known as Dixon Hall Neighbourhood Services.
The English Gothic Revival-style building was constructed between 1865 and 1866, with additions and modifications over the years.
In the late 1800s St. Peter’s was a refuge for the Underground Railroad. It was a meeting place of diversity consisting of farmers, city dwellers, the needy and the wealthy. From the Church, coal and potatoes were given out during the depression.
A sketch of St. Peter’s Anglican Church, 1904
The Church’s foundation stone was laid in 1865, and it opened in 1866, designed by architects Gundry & Langley. The building received heritage status from the City of Toronto in 1973 and the Ontario Heritage Trust in 1993.
In 2016, the Church’s congregation merged with St. Simon’s Anglican at 525 Bloor Street East. St. Peter’s was then deconsecrated, and Dixon Hall moved into the building where it continues to provide community services.
St. Peter’s, January 1923 Photo: City of Toronto Archives
The entrance to Dixon Hall’s rooms and offices are located around the back of the Church, in a slightly newer part of the building:
If you are interested in learning a little more about the history of St. Peter’s Anglican Church, here is a short video made at the time of the 2016 amalgamation of the St. Peter’s and St. Simon’s parishes:
I really love Allan Gardens. This Christmas show looks really wonderful. I will have to go and take a look