St Pancras International's interactive Christmas tree music box is now open to visitors

Sorry haters, this week is when Christmas officially kicks off in London, and among its highlights is the St. Pancras train station Christmas tree.

Those great high glass ceilings and the sheer concourse space of St. Pancras International make it the ideal spot for a bit of Christmas iconography. This year it’s part of a creative collaboration with Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Much like last year’s Wicked-inspired riff, the 2025 “tree” isn’t a tree at all but a sculpture, one inspired by a child’s music box toy.

It’s 12m high, topped with a huge Christmas tree-like spire jam-packed with lights and baubles. A lit ballerina sits at the very top, modelled after a real person involved with the GOSH Arts programme.

In total, there are 158 Christmas baubles and 180 metres of fairy lights, and the edifice rotates as a music box-style tune plays. This is itself kicked off with a set of buttons that sit by the seating area at the bottom.

There’s Ballerina Music, Christmas Music and Cog Music to choose from on the track list, and each of these entries is also written out in braille.

Around this lower section, colourfully lit windows show children’s notes amid the fantasy clockwork of the structure. The idea is that each of these notes becomes one of the baubles atop the tree. And, sure enough, the tree’s own silver baubles are decorated with drawings created by 38 children from the Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The tree was constructed by 30 people, and will sit in St Pancras International until early January. You’ll also be able to donate to the GOSH at the installation itself.

Fancy a little trip down memory lane? Here are the tree designs from the last fistful of years:

• 2024: Wicked tie-in, an 11m recreation of the city of Oz
  2023: Collaboration with bookseller Hatchards, featuring more than 3800 books
• 2022: The Prince’s Trust team-up depicting a lightly abstracted take on the London skyline

• 2021: A rare not-that-tall design made in collaboration with the ZSL London Zoo
• 2020: Cafe chain EL&N design dedicated to “NHS staff, key workers and carers,” and decorated with 1200 metres of festive ribbon
• 2019: Eiffel Tower design in partnership with beauty brand Lancôme

What's next for the Christmas-ification of London? Oxford Street is already lit, and both Regent Street and Carnaby Street will join it on November 6th.

• Santa’s swapping his sleigh for a steam train

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