World’s best holiday light displays

Let’s face it: most of the things we love about the winter holidays — the family gatherings, the parties and overindulgent meals, the giving and receiving of gifts — are also pretty stressful. Many of us cross over into the New Year feeling as if we’ve just run a marathon: happy, but exhausted, and figuratively and literally spent.

Maybe that’s why so many of us — all over the world — get wildly enthused about holiday light displays. They’re one of the only parts of the season that feel truly, unadulteratedly joyful; they’re free, they’re enchanting, and they require nothing of us, other than that we take a few minutes to enjoy them.

Of course, the more exuberantly over-the-top a light display is, the more we appreciate it. Outrageous holiday spectacles, after all, imply herculean efforts; someone — not us! — spent weeks, even months, setting up the Christmas trees, winding and draping the light cords, programming and coordinating the music, all for our amusement.

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And it really doesn’t matter whether the displays are elegantly tasteful or unabashedly cheesy. Some cities mount installations that dazzle with graceful artistry: in Copenhagen, for example, lights adorning the historic Tivoli Gardens and Christmas market are created by the design director at Tiffany & Co.; in the Tokyo district of Roppongi, last year’s cosmos-themed “Milky Way” light show evoked an outré outdoor art exhibit.

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In other places, the aesthetic is more akin to gleeful glitz — the flashier the better. Some destinations that embrace shameless extravagance aren’t especially surprising; would we expect anything less of Walt Disney World than 10 miles of winking, “dancing” Christmas lights? But some — like Brussels, where the stately, impressive 15th-century Town Hall goes luminously goofy for the holidays — are.

No matter what kind of spectacle we prefer (and hey, a musical tree at the mall or a neighbor's decked-out house can be every bit as fun as big-city pyrotechnics), it’s important to try to catch one. Even if it’s on the way to an anxiety-producing fête or during a panicked last-minute shopping run, these displays can conjure something in us that’s too rare this time of year: genuine good cheer.