UBC January 2025 - Lucy Lights

Welcome to Day 2 of the January UBC. 

As I was saying yesterday, I'll use a few days of this challenge to share some of the wonderful Christmas events we got to experience. 

One of my bucket list items for the Christmas season was to see the Lucy Lights, the starry sky above Bahnhofstrasse, the main shopping street. 

Why are the city of Zurich's Christmas lights called "Lucy Lights"?. A total of 11,500 specially cut light crystals illuminate Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse. Over 23,000 LED lights have been installed for this purpose. The sparkle reminds people of diamonds as in the Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky of Diamonds". 

I had followed a post in the “international Mommy Group” on Facebook in which expats who had recently moved to Switzerland asked how best to experience the Lucy Lights. 

I had to smile. They were probably expecting something along the lines of the Rockefeller Christmas tree in New York City, where, as a spectator of the Tree Lighting Ceremony, you should arrive very early if you want a good spot. 

In Zurich, it's basically business as usual up until 5:55pm, by which time the last tram leaves the Bahnhofstrasse / Hauptbahnhof stop. People gather in the middle of the street, their mobile phones ready to film or take pictures when at 6pm on the dot somebody with the city's utilities switches on the lights. That's it.

"To be completely honest, it's very underwhelming" one lady wrote, "but in order to not be rude, you go ohhhh and awww long with the others."

Baahahahaa, yeah, I can get where she comes from. However, for us locals it's an annual celebration of getting "our" Christmas lights back. 

What am I talking about?

2005 the Zurich city council decided to install new lighting for the Christmas season. Instead of the classic, traditional Christmas lights found in many other cities, they opted for a more modern, futuristic version consisting of neon-colored tubes in various shapes and patterns.

The new installation which was named “The World's Largest Timepiece” and cost CHF 2.5 million, received a lot of criticism.. Many found the neon lights too sterile and cold for the festive season, resulting in a lack of a feel-good factor. Instead of the traditional, warm atmosphere associated with Christmas, the lighting gave the impression of a medical environment.

I called it "operating room lights" and refused to ever take pictures of them. 

If you're interested in checking them out, feel free. Interestingly, most articles are actually about the sale of the lights. Yes, a few years after their last appearance, the majority of the neon tubes could be sold to a real estate company. Good riddance;-)

This year the first lighting took place on November 21, and coincided with the first - and as it turned out, the only - snow fall. It was so pretty and magical!

Underwhelming or not, it always attracts a lot of people, and for the occasion of the first lighting, there are no trams running along the entire Bahnhofstrasse, a stretch of almost a mile. 

The snow and the lack of trams made the experience all the more enchanting. This is a picture I took on our way back. Most onlookers had gone home - or they had taken refuge in a heated café to warm up with a hot chocolate, as we were going to do as well.

Globus is one of our two main department stores, and they did a great job, "wrapping" their entire building with lights.

When people put up this beautiful Christmas tree in front of UBS HQs' building, they would never have dreamed that it would be covered in snow. 

Do people in the USA know the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” by the Brothers Grimm? This is the witch's cottage! Well, it's also a harmless gingerbread house, probably hand made by Zurich's prestigious confectionary "Sprüngli", known for their macarons.

If Sprüngli is too pricey, you may want to get something from the street stands like roasted chestnuts and Glühwein, mulled wine. Trouble is, you need to remove your gloves in order to peel the chestnuts!

So happy that 16yo Colin didn't mind going into town with his Mom!  

Look at us, same spot, back in 2017! No snow, and 9yo Colin was still considerably shorter than me. He is holding the toy store catalogue in this hands. Aww, where did the time go?

Remember when I told you about the "Zurich Wordle"?

The five letter word that changes every day outside of this building? That night it said BLING, honoring the Lucy Lights. 

One more thing, speaking of bling, the maintenance and above all the annual installation of the many fairy lights is very time-consuming and costly, which is why citizens are now being asked to sponsor the Lucy Lights. With a sponsorship for one or more Lucy light crystals at CHF 45 each, the Christmas lights will contribute towards the preservation of the lights, and at least CHF 10 per crystal will be donated to the hospital clowns project.

Hospital clowns? All across Switzerland, there's 75 medically trained volunteers whose purpose it is to cheer up scared young patients. Simple as that. We met one when Colin had to go to the ER two years ago.

In front of the Zürcher Kantonalbank (ZKB) headquarters stands a striking rhinoceros sculpture, created by Swiss artist John A. Tobler in 1981. 

The rhino symbolizes strength, security, and conservation, reflecting the bank's values and its commitment to supporting rhinoceros protection projects. 

I am not sure if and how many times the rhino has experienced snowfall.

Something I do every year is to look up the Coca-Cola Christmas Truck's tour schedule. Between mid-November up until Christmas they visit a different city or neighborhood every day. On this particular Thursday night they happened to be at Zurich Bürkliplatz, and could it be  more perfect timing than on this snowy evening?

Good thing I had treated Colin to a burger before we arrived here, otherwise he might have become hangry as I was taking my sweet time to admire the surroundings and waiting for passersby to disappear so I could take pictures. 

Extrawagen - not sure what kind of tram it was, but it looked vintage, and it was one of the few means of transportation that resumed traffic again. 

As we heard from the loudspeaker announcement, the bus service was suspended due to the heavy snowfall, icy roads and trees that had fallen under the weight of the snow. Colin wondered if this also applied to our bus at home? “Don't joke, we're not sissies in the agglomeration, and we drive in winter too!” I said. And luckily, I was proved right. Later though.

Because first, hot chocolate!

As the saying goes, if you can party, you can get up and go to work the next morning, even if, or especially if, work on that particular day started with shoveling snow.

This was the closest to a white Christmas we came this year, and I am glad I got to enjoy it while it lasted! Did you get any snowfall in December? Did you attend any lighting of Christmas lights or trees events? Would you consider sponsoring your local Christmas lights?