London termini Christmas trees ranked

Thursday 18th December 2025

To get in the mood for next week’s festivities I’ve taken my annual wander around London’s 12 main line termini having a look at their Christmas tree displays. Readers may recall last year I awarded joint first prize to King’s Cross and Paddington for their truly splendid efforts complete with a local choir singing alongside the tree at the former and the Salvation Army playing carols at the latter. It was all very festive.

Bottom of the Top 12 last year was Charing Cross which made no effort at all, offering a distinct lack of any tree or festive decorations and once again this year, it’s the same Scrooge like story making you wonder “Do They Know It’s Christmas Time At all?”. Either that or Network Rail/Southeastern doesn’t extend a budget so the hard working staff can buy a few decorations and brighten the place up.

However, once again, to make up for the lack of festive decor above ground, London Underground staff below ground have made the Charing Cross gateline nice and colourful by digging out the plastic tree and decorations from the cardboard box safely stored away in the corner of the restroom; so well done to them. They’ve even decorated the barrier around the tree this year too. A nice touch and makes colleagues upstairs look positively Grinch like.

Also joining the Charing Cross Christmas Tree Agnostic Club is Blackfriars where the concourse is in its usual clinically stark state with not a whiff of seasonal greetings to be seen.

One of last year’s disappointments was the poor ranking of St Pancras and Victoria which both unashamedly opted for blatant sponsorship of their trees. It’s sad to report this trend has now spread with both last year’s winners (King’s Cross and Paddington) succumbing to conceding the festive goodwill potential to third parties. So let’s take a look at these bottom ranking stations and first up, King’s Cross has completely lost the plot this year. Here’s a reminder of last year’s Gold Standard winning entry…

… and this, by comparison, is 2025’s monstrosity of an offering…

It’s a complete sell out to Hogsmeade and it gets even worse round the other side…

OK, I accept there is a tree in there, but why hide it among the blatant sponsorship from the Warner Brothers/JK Rowling conglomerate? If you must have some kind of non festive theme, what would have been wrong with lovely red, white and blue ‘Great British Railways is coming soon’ messaging around the tree and keep everything on corporate message. Maybe Heidi Alexander and Peter Hendy could have shown up for the lighting up ceremony.

Still, at least one of the ticket machines on the concourse looks a tad festive as do the decorations below the departure boards, so nice to see some effort has been made that wasn’t simply money grabbing from sponsors.

Meanwhile, over at last year’s joint winner, Paddington, here’s a reminder of the colourful display and messaging we all enjoyed last year…

… and this is what’s happened this year.

It’s out with the Sally Army and Jesus messaging and in with Ferrero Rocher. What a come down. Paddington is definitely ‘Nil Points Paddington’ for this year’s display.

However I’m pleased to report the reverse situation applies over at St Pancras and Victoria both of which have encouragingly binned the sponsorship deals. Readers may recall last year’s St Pancras display was a complete festive sell out in favour of promoting the film Wicked resulting in this rather weird and, thankfully, forgettable display…

… whereas this year while managers still seem to prefer an unconventional display format, there’s a positive story behind it but only thanks to Google’s AI explanation where I found what it was actually all about…

… and what this giant key is representing.

AI tells me “the 2025 St Pancras Christmas tree, themed “Powered by Dreams”, represents the hopes, dreams, and resilience of children at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), styled as a magical, rotating music box to bring their aspirations (like becoming a pilot or gymnast) to life through art, music, and accessible features like Braille. It’s a collaboration with GOSH Charity to raise awareness and funds, showcasing the station’s musical heritage and the power of imagination.”

I may have missed it, but it might have been helpful to display that explanation somewhere on site, perhaps alongside the invitation to donate, as I went home completely mystified as to what it was all about until doing a bit of Googling. However, while there I did have fun choosing the music to entertain those passengers queuing alongside the ‘tree’ for check in and security for their Eurostar journey.

Victoria hasn’t quite gone the whole hog of switching from commercial sponsorship to charitable support but it’s still encouraging to see last year’s deal to promote an app specialising in “sharing and finding items locally”…

… has been ditched in favour of a straight forward tree display complete with new set of baubles. So well done Team VIC for rightly earning your place back in the higher reaches of the top 12 this year.

And I see they’ve splashed out on new protective wicket fencing too. So, well done them.

Not being a Netflix subscriber I was completely stumped by the messaging on the tree on Waterloo’s concourse.

“Stranger Things” and “Welcome to Hawkins” went completely over my head, not appreciating “the hotly-awaited final season of Netflix’s smash-hit horror, sci-fi and ’80s coming-of-age drama show gets underway on Thursday, and anyone passing through one of London’s busiest train stations will know about it”. Apparently Manchester Piccadilly has succumbed to the same abomination.

What’s wrong with “We wish all our passengers a very Merry Christmas”? No points for Waterloo this year. Sorry, guys.

Which brings me to Britain’s busiest station, Liverpool Street, which last year was a complete let down offering such a measly sized tree for a mega sized passenger throughput…(here’s a reminder)….

… and this year, it’s the same again. In fact I initially wondered if it was a plastic tree and therefore the same one, but no it is a real one and like at Victoria the team has splashed out on a new picket fence.

And on a positive note for Team LST they’re promoting Guide Dogs on the tree this year…

… but I’m not sure how many passengers will get up close enough to spot that.

Back over at Marylebone, the temptation to link up with the Far Eastern tourist cash cow that is Bicester Village was obviously far too great, and whereas last year’s offering was just plain festive…

… this year it’s a complete brand sell out not only to Bicester Village but Fortnum & Mason too.

Euston obviously has its challenges fitting a tree on to an overcrowded concourse but once again the team have entered the Christmas spirit by locating the tree on the mezzanine floor overlooking the bustling concourse, and rather nice it looks too with its red and silver baubles.

Passengers with an eye for the small print may notice the reference on the Merry Christmas sign the tree has been “sponsored by mitie” which I suspect would mean absolutely nothing to them, as it didn’t to me.

A quick online search tells me mitie is “the UK’s leading facilities management company”. So that’s OK then.

Which brings me to the Top 3 Christmas trees at London’s main line termini for 2025. And to qualify for a coveted top spot there must be no sponsorship, the tree must look like a Christmas tree and the baubles and decorations be attractive.

In third place we have a particularly attractive silver display at Fenchurch Street…

… and once again there’s a tie for top place (and that’s mainly because it looks like the trees and decorations were bought as a job lot) with well deserved joint winners picking up the Best Christmas Tree Trophy…..(pause for drum roll)… and the joint winners are ….. London Bridge…

….and Cannon Street.

Both well deserved winners. And thanks for joining me on this festive tour.

Readers may have detected I’ve moved into festive blogging mode and this continues on Saturday with a specially extended blog featuring the BusAndTrainUser Quiz of the Year along with the BusAndTrainUser Annual Review of the Year with next Tuesday’s blog devoted to the much anticipated BusAndTrainUser Annual Awards 2025.

Don’t miss out. Subscribe today (as they say).

Roger French