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9 Hotels That Will Put You in the Holiday Spirit

Dec. 24, 2017
6 min read
Roosevelt-hotel-NOLA
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It's the most wonderful time of the year... for hotel Christmas decorations. That's why we've rounded up our favorite hotels from around the world that transform their lobbies and beyond into holiday delights and winter wonderlands. From Hong Kong to London, these hotels celebrate in the best of ways. We highly recommend popping in — if not to get a glimpse of Santa — to eat and drink your way through the holiday-inspired menus.

1. The Roosevelt Hotel

Every year, The Roosevelt in New Orleans transforms its block-long lobby into a winter wonderland that attracts visitors from all over the country. The lobby of this Waldorf Astoria hotel is decorated with 46 Christmas trees, 22 birch trees, more than 60,000 twinkling lights and 30 feet of garland; the display whisks visitors away to a NOLA-themed holiday with its design. It also features a classic gingerbread house, but in typical New Orleans fashion, it's a shotgun house which stands at over 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide. The hotel also offers its yearly tradition of Teddy Bear Tea, where kids are greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Claus on the rooftop of the hotel. While checking out the amazing display at the Roosevelt, be sure to stop in the world-famous Sazerac Bar for a cocktail or two.

2. The Mission Inn

No hotel celebrates the holidays quite like The Mission Inn in Riverside, California. They have a massive gingerbread replica of the hotel, a 30-foot tree, an immersive "candy stroll" — and those are just this year's newest features. The hotel is covered in over 5 million lights, which are featured during the Festival of Lights, one of the country's largest public holiday light collections of its kind. Over 250,000 visitors come to the Southern California lodge every year to witness the holiday wonderment. The festival alone provides over 200 jobs for the community and draws in more than $42 million in revenue for the city's businesses. Who knew you could find such holiday cheer in a tiny California town?

3. The Peninsula Hong Kong

The Peninsula Hong Kong not only decorates its lobby with a beautiful tree, lights and ornaments, but the team turns the holiday celebration into a charitable cause for Make-A-Wish Hong Kong. Together with the Peninsula Hotels from around the world, the hotel chain founded Trees of Hope, which has raised over $1 million at the Hong Kong location alone. The hotel begins the holiday festivities with Santa Claus pushing the magic lever lighting up the lobby with festive cheer. Santa Claus is joined by the Peninsula Pages, who sing along as the Christmas festivities are unrolled.

4. The Ritz London

This palatial hotel glows even brighter during the holidays. With the addition of a 25-foot-tall Christmas tree in its lobby towering into the beautiful rotunda above, the entire hotel is transformed into a red-and-gold delight with reindeers, giant red velvet bows, twinkling lights and shimmering baubles in every nook and cranny. The outside is decorated as well, with magnificent wreaths hanging from the windows. And the hotel doesn't forget about its guests: Each of the 136 rooms has a poinsettia plant and every suite has its very own Christmas tree. The Ritz London truly goes all out, bringing holiday cheer for all its guests and visitors.

5. The Four Seasons Hotel George V

Nothing tops Christmas at the Four Seasons in Paris. The hotel attracts visitors and tourists from around the globe to come in and take a picture of the lobby turned floral wonderland. The flowers are so fanciful and ornate that they're more like art installations — that get changed regularly — than floral arrangements. Artistic Director of the Four Seasons Paris and florist to the stars, Jeff Leatham, transforms the lobby and surrounding areas year after year.

"When thinking about Christmas this year, I absolutely wanted to offer our guests an interactive experience, reinventing tradition and bringing real flowers for the first time to our renowned Christmas decoration," Leatham said in a statement. The mirrored Christmas sculptures around the hotel reflect the various arrangements, which give visitors a sense of eternity.

6. The Breakers

What's better than Christmas? Christmas at the beach. This iconic luxury hotel in Palm Beach spares nothing when it comes to decorating the hotel. The 100 massive palm trees that line the driveway are wrapped with lights and the inside is decorated with garland, lights, trees and everything in between. There are two 18-foot-tall Christmas trees in the majestic lobby. In total, The Breakers uses 150,000 lights, 3,500 ornaments and over 9,000 feet of ribbon. This coastal retreat is perfect for beach-dwellers who want to immerse themselves in holiday cheer.

7. The Liberty Hotel

This hotel in Boston wants to turn Christmas tradition upside down — literally. The high-end hotel hangs their Christmas trees upside down from the roof, fully decorated with ornaments and lights. The eight trees hang from the 90-foot rotunda roof of the hotel — which used to be a jailhouse — and dangle at various heights over the lobby. Walk around each floor of the hotel to see the trees from every angle possible and notice how the base, or the top in this case, is decorated too.

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8. Hyatt Regency San Francisco

The Hyatt Regency in San Francisco takes advantage of every inch of a 17-story open atrium when the holidays roll around. At the center of it all stands a 30-foot-tall Christmas tree; the gigantic eclipse sculpture shines bright with red and green lights and giant ornaments hang all around the lobby. And while SF doesn't get much snow, that doesn't stop the Hyatt from dazzling in a winter wonderland; snow falls inside the lobby at least three times a day. The hotel also features an ice skating rink put on by Hawaiian Airlines. And, of course, Santa Claus makes an appearance as Christmas approaches.

9. Fairmont Le Château Frontenac

Le Château Frontenac wastes no time getting ready for the holidays: The hotel begins setting up the first of November to get ready for its holiday-inspired events, continuing until January. The hotel offers a variety of activities ranging from festive brunch and dinner options to workshops that teach the best table-setting, mixology and culinary strategies. They also have a horse-drawn carriage that visitors of the hotel can ride to soak up the winter wonderland of Quebec.

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