Paris: The Name of the Star who will Launch the Christmas Lights on the Champs-Élysées revealed

AND THE WINNER IS…:Christmas lights on the Champs-Élysées will sparkle from the 16th November to the 4th January 2026 daily from 5pm until midnight, and until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays

Léa Seydoux will have the joy of flipping the switch. The actress was assigned to launch the christmas lights on the Champs-Élysées on the 16th November, the Champs-Élysées Committee announced on Wednesday.

It will kick off the illuminations on the Champs-Elysées at 6.30pm, a ritual of the end-of-year celebrations and Paris tourist, established in 1980. She will be accompanied by a boy and a girl from the Petits Princes association, which makes the dreams of seriously ill children come true. According to the president of the committee, Marc-Antoine Jamet, “we will be between tradition and innovation, modernity and classicism”.

The Eiffel Tower as a guest star

New for this edition, the Eiffel Tower will sparkle on the evening of the launch “for five minutes” to “respond to the most beautiful avenue in the world”. On the show side, Quebec artist Charlotte Cardin will lead the dance and perform the piece Too bad for her.

Designed by designer Thierry Reboul, the show is highlighted by Thomas Dechandon and entrusted, as in previous years, to “the exceptional technology of Blachère Illuminations”, official supplier. The decorations will adorn 400 trees from the 16th November to the 4th January 2026 and will sparkle daily from 5pm until midnight, and even an hour longer on Fridays and Saturdays.

These illuminations correspond to “the consumption of 2 average French households per year”, figures which have fallen since the use of LED garlands, specifies the president of the committee. Marc-Antoine Jamet aims to exceed the 150,000 spectator mark reached in 2024, thanks to “television media” and “social networks”.