Set in Nathan Phillips Square, Cavalcade of Lights is an annual free event that transforms City Hall and and the Square into a dazzling wonderland.
This year there is lots of lights, art installations and, of course, free skating:
Art Installation: “Lux Array” An interactive light and sound installation by Luxonous Collective. Its assembly of rotating squares become photo frames, inviting you to enter and become part of the artwork yourself.Art Installation: “Luminescence” An immersive experience in an illuminated dome, east of the main stageArt Installation: “We Change Each Other” A thought-provoking light installation that explores themes of unity and the amalgamation of cultures by Shilpa Gupta, near the TORONTO sign.Art Installation: “Echo” An interactive installation that allows you to explore the hidden power of your unique voice
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!
There were two major ethnic street festivals happening in Toronto this weekend: the Roncesvalles Polish Festival and the Bloor West Village Toronto Ukrainian Festival. I’ve posted previously about the Ukrainian Festival, so I thought I’d cover the Polish Festival this time.
Time for Polka and Pierogis!
On September 13 and 14th, the Roncesvalles Village played host to the Roncesvalles Polish Festival. Now in its 17th year, the event stretched down Roncesvalles Avenue from Dundas Street West to Queen Street West. The Festival bills itself as North America’s largest celebration of Polish culture.
All up and down Roncesvalles, there was authentic Polish cuisine, Polish song and dance groups, and over 90 merchandise vendors. The site also included 6 beverage gardens, 2 family zones and multiple outdoor stages with over 40 performances. Local restaurants, bistros, cafes and shops along Roncesvalles Avenue also heavily contributed to the Festival’s celebratory atmosphere.
It just wouldn’t be summer in Toronto without the street festivals. Pretty much any weekend from June to September there is a festival happening in the city, sometimes two or three events on the same weekend.
The Toronto Chinatown Festival is an annual tradition recently celebrated on Spadina Avenue between Sullivan Street and St. Andrew Street. This year, the Toronto Chinatown Festival celebrated its 25th anniversary, with an abundance of multi-cultural street food, cultural performances and the occasional dragon dance.
I’ve always loved the Chinatown Festival – it’s such a joyous celebration of sound, food, music, colour and cultural diversity in our city:
I didn’t catch her name, but this singer had an amazingly delicate, yet powerful, voice:
This mannequin in the red jumpsuit was kind of freaky…The CN Tower looms over the Chinatown dragons. These Spadina Avenue dragons form a gateway to Toronto’s Chinatown neighbourhood. They were designed to form the Mandarin character for “gate”.Waiting for the call, literally: This lady was waiting backstage for her queue to go on. What else to do but check one’s Instagram feed, I guess?
OK, I realize Toronto Pride is not really a TO Cityscape, per se, but it’s a major event that shakes up the city once a year, so I think it’s worthy of coverage.
Love it or hate it, Pride was back for another year, despite a $900,000.00 shortfall of cash – a result of some of the major investors backing out due to the current idiocy happening down south. ANYWAY…. it was still a great party this past weekend.
Yours truly was too vain/stupid/stubborn to wear a hat for the events (it’ll mess my ‘do!) so, of course, I ended up with an intense facial/forehead sunburn. As a result, my wandering was somewhat curtailed over the weekend and I didn’t quite capture the allotment of shots I normally get on a Pride weekend.
At any rate, here’s a few photos to give you an idea of the weekend’s events:
Local Businesses
Area businesses and offices showed their support, as always:
Manulife building on Bloor Street EastManulife building on Bloor Street EastRexall at Church & Wellesley StreetsRexall at Church & Wellesley StreetsRBC at Church & Wellesley StreetsTim Hortons on Bloor Street East
The windows at Dudley’s Hardware (511 Church St.) are always an excellent barometer of what’s happening in the village. This weekend was no exception:
Festival Grounds
Wandering around the general area of Church Street on Pride Weekend, you’re bound to see anything:
Church & Bloor StreetsAt Church and Gloucester StreetsPositive messagesOn Church StreetFlags at The 519FabulousStilt walker on Church St.Lots of DJsGiant Priscilla-like shoe from BataSo like a catI love theseMark Henderson never misses a Pride event. The booklets he’s holding – and the blue banner behind him – proclaim him “King of Pride”.Nice wings…
Drag Ball 2025, Nathan Phillips Square
And, of course, we can’t forget the Drag Queens and Kings. The Drag Ball ran from 2:00PM to 11:00PM on Saturday, June 28th, one act immediately following another with no break between. The energy at this event was simply electric, and the weather actually behaved itself and delivered a perfect day:
I leave you with this performance by Lena Di Matrix, shot just before I left City Hall. It exhausts me just watching this. Drag artists, I salute you!:
OK, I cheated a little on this post. I just wasn’t up to shooting the Good Friday Procession in today’s rain, so I’ve brought forward my shots of the event from a few year’s ago.
For those unfamiliar, the Good Friday Procession is a long standing tradition taking place every Good Friday in Toronto. The mile-long procession is a three-hour event reenacting the fourteen stations of the cross, symbolizing what Christians believe to be the path Jesus took before he was crucified.
The Procession got its start in 1962. These days, thousands turn out for the Good Friday procession as it winds its way through the streets of Toronto’s Little Italy. The sombre event is organized and performed primarily by the parish of St. Francis of Assisi Church at the corner of Mansfield Avenue and Grace Street.
The Good Friday Procession Route
Getting ready for the procession outside the St. Francis of Assisi Church
Although an event like Remembrance Day is not really a cityscape per se, I feel it is extremely important to acknowledge the day.
Earlier today I attended the Remembrance Day ceremonies at Old City Hall. The sombre event was exceedingly well attended and the rain actually held off until later in the afternoon.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.
They were young, as we are young, They served, giving freely of themselves. To them, we pledge, amid the winds of time, To carry their torch and never forget. We will remember them.
7th Regimental Band, Royal Canadian Artillery Band, under the direction of Lieutenant Carina LamAretha Phillip, Chief of Protocol, City of TorontoA flypast by The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). The flypasts were conducted during several Remembrance Day commemorations across Canada.Remarks from the City of Toronto, presented by Mayor Olivia ChowMayor Olivia Chow places a wreathBenediction, given by Rev. John Joseph Mastandrea, Chaplain, Toronto Police ServicesAretha Phillip, Chief of Protocol, City of TorontoMarching off at the end of the service
Laying poppies on the Cenotaph, end of services
Flowers and poppies on the Cenotaph, end of service
Thanks for these photos, looks like they did a nice job on the square this year. Best wishes to you…