Beyond decoration: Christmas lights to project and light up Barcelona

"Més escudella", "I demà, canelons". These are genuinely Barcelona Christmas slogans that greet citizens from the top of Gran Via since they were installed weeks ago. Finally, this weekend they light up, along with the 126 kilometers of streets that will shine in all districts of Barcelona for Christmas. And they do so with a purpose that goes far beyond decorating the streets: the lights connect citizens, neighborhoods, businesses, and heritage, while contributing to projecting a city that wants to position its design as a differential factor.

With this objective, Barcelona has opted this year to promote designer lighting, with new installations designed by six design studios in emblematic spaces: Plaza Catalunya, Via Laietana, Gran Via, Aragó, Passeig de Sant Joan, and the DHub area. "We want to stand out from other cities that resort to more standard lighting, and we want to stand out for this creativity," highlights the Commissioner for Economic Promotion, Commerce, and Restoration of the City Council, Nadia Quevedo. With the aerial dance, music, and pyrotechnics of Saturday's show on Paseo de Gràcia as the starting signal, the Christmas lights will illuminate the city until January 6, every day from 5:30 p.m.

"As a city that is a benchmark in the field of design applied to urban spaces, it is important for Barcelona to consolidate this image as a creative, innovative, and sustainable city," adds the commissioner. Thus, the city has made this commitment to design "to continue building a visual identity for Barcelona, through these designer lights that differentiate us from other cities." And it is not a one-time commitment, but a strategic vision, and "the intention is to gradually incorporate new streets and elements that highlight this creativity," with a medium and long-term project that seeks to "singularize the city's proposal" based on this creativity as a characteristic element.

However, the focus is not only on these emblematic points, but Christmas lighting reaches all districts. With 15% more budget and 16 kilometers more than last year, the city will have a total of 126 illuminated kilometers, to which this year are added 38 fountains and 25 large luminous reindeer figures distributed throughout the city. "It is important to highlight that the lights will reach all districts," also through unique buildings and municipal markets.

In this task of dressing Barcelona for Christmas, actors such as hotels, companies and shopping centers also play a role, also resorting to their best finery. Unique buildings such as the Casa Batlló will be decorated for the occasion, as will Casa Seat, which for the first time transcends its walls and extends to Jardinets de Gràcia, where a 12-meter Christmas tree stands. Regulars of the Christmas scene such as El Corte Inglés once again join in to bring sparkle to the city, with more than 85,000 lights in Plaza Catalunya and Diagonal and, for the first time, with a nine-meter tree in Can Dragó. Beyond the lighting in public spaces, private initiatives join in to bring light to the city during these dates, such as the already traditional Llums de Sant Pau.

"Christmas is a strategic moment for the city and its economy, and there is an objective to position and promote commerce, and also catering," highlights Quevedo. In fact, the importance of Christmas is crucial for the commercial fabric, as highlighted by the president of the Fundació Barcelona Comerç, Pròsper Puig. "For some sectors, more than 30% of annual turnover is concentrated in November and December," he emphasizes. In this way, it represents "the most important time of the year for commerce, and its subsistence, especially local commerce, sometimes depends on having a good Christmas or not having one."

"For us, it is fundamental to have a Christmas that works," reiterates Puig, who highlights the importance of lights in this sense: "Lights have a psychological effect, like an adrenaline rush similar to what was generated before when you put up the Sales sign." In addition, commercial hubs add initiatives of all kinds to the lighting, ranging from Christmas trains to the tió and letter deliveries. However, here the creativity with which the city wants to position itself is not so easy to materialize: "It is increasingly complicated, because the City Council is very restrictive regarding the management of public space," assures Puig: "Normally the initiatives end up being done, but it costs much more."

And each commercial hub has its particular specific situation, from compact hubs to those that are more extensive and dispersed. This is, among others, the case of Coreixample, which spans from Passeig de Gràcia to Passeig Sant Joan, and from Trafalgar to Còrsega. "It is a very wide territory, with many horizontal and vertical streets, and the lighting budget is very high," highlights Xavier Llobet representing Coreixample. With 250 businesses, the area is lit independently of the lights subsidized by the City Council, since "even if they subsidize 70 or 80%, for us it is a lot of money," Llobet emphasizes: "We had gaps of between 7,000 and 9,000 euros."

Thus, the merchants' association resorted, again, to creativity. "Coreixample is the heart of modernism, and we wanted to do something different." Now, each partner is adorned with a large garland made by Flores Navarro, located, of course, in the Coreixample area — an initiative not subsidized by the City Council. However, the area has the unique lighting of Gran Via and Aragó, two streets that the consistory takes on. As Llobet highlights, "Christmas is not; we make Christmas. And it can be done in many ways; the only thing we have to achieve is that it is noticed, that it is celebrated."