Copley Square's First Holiday Season Since Its Renovation

The Copley Square tree was lit on December 1, 2025, the night the full plaza reopened to the public, according to Sasaki, the firm that designed the renovation. The fountain wasn't finished that night, and neither were the perimeter sidewalks. The City of Boston didn't call the park fully open until the restored fountain was running and the sidewalks were done, and Mayor Michelle Wu cut the ribbon on May 28, 2026.

This winter is the first time since July 2023 that Copley Square's holiday calendar runs on a finished park. The redesign was built for exactly these events: event-ready paving and utilities, better access from Dartmouth Street, and room for the Copley Square Farmers Market, First Night and the Boston Marathon. Between now and New Year's Day, those events take their first full turn through it.

How long the square was a work zone

Most of the park closed in July 2023. Construction started in late July, later than planned. Boston.com reported that the team first needed MBTA approval because the Green Line tunnel runs roughly 30 feet from the park's north sidewalk. At the start, the target for finishing was late fall 2024.

The park came back in pieces:

January 1, 2025. The northeast triangle reopened first.
April 2025. The Plaza and Raised Grove reopened ahead of the Boston Marathon. That spring, Boston.com reported the plaza was six months behind schedule and said the delay came from winter weather "inconsistent" with previous years.
December 1, 2025. The full plaza reopened for the holiday tree lighting.
May 28, 2026. With the fountain restored and the perimeter sidewalks finished, the city held the ribbon cutting and called the park fully open.

The city's completion announcement puts the total at $18.9 million for design and construction, paid for through the city's five-year Capital Plan.

What the park looks like now

The lawn now sits in front of Trinity Church. The plaza moved toward Dartmouth Street, and the event space grew. According to Sasaki's account of the build, the total green space is still about 20,000 square feet. The Raised Grove is a deck built around the established trees. It keeps foot traffic off their roots and gives you shaded seating under them. The city says the project protected the mature trees, added 46 new ones, doubled the canopy and increased the number of tree species from four to nine.

The fountain looks familiar, with a few changes. It has a shallower pool and a curved edge with more seating, and the two obelisks and spouts stayed. The old fountain steps weren't thrown away. They were reused as seat walls around the fountain.

Some of the work is underground and matters to the buildings around the square. Sasaki explains that hard, impermeable surfaces across Back Bay have lowered groundwater levels, which creates long-term durability problems for the wood piles that many buildings in the area stand on. To help keep the water table up, and possibly raise it, the design adds permeable brick around the edges, the open deck around the trees and an underground infiltration gallery that filters rainwater back into the ground. Sasaki's build account says that gallery holds 77,000 gallons.

At the ribbon cutting, Interim Parks Commissioner Cathy Baker-Eclipse described the design's purpose in the city's announcement:

"From fully accessible pathways to an expanded tree canopy and shaded seating, these improvements support the park's daily function as a gathering space for residents, workers and visitors, while providing flexible space for community staples like the Copley Square Farmers Market to major cultural events such as First Night and the Boston Marathon."

Two of the events she named, the farmers market and First Night, come up before the year is out.

The calendar, in order

Date	What	Where	Details
Tuesdays and Fridays through Nov. 24	Copley Square Farmers Market	227–230 Dartmouth St.	11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Nov. 24 is the last day of the season
Mon., Nov. 30	Copley Square Tree Lighting	560 Boylston St.	5 to 6 p.m., free
Thu., Dec. 3	Commonwealth Avenue Mall lighting	Commonwealth Avenue Mall	Follows the Boston Common lighting
Sun., Dec. 6	Handel's Messiah	Trinity Church	2 p.m.
Sun., Dec. 6	Open Newbury: Holiday Stroll	Newbury St., Berkeley St. to Mass Ave	10 a.m. to 6 p.m., car-free; rain date Dec. 13
Sat., Dec. 12 and Sun., Dec. 13	Candlelight Carols	Trinity Church, 206 Clarendon St.	4 and 7 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday
Thu., Dec. 31	First Night ice sculptures and procession	Copley Square	Sculptures from noon; procession at 6 p.m.

The market's last four days

After today, the Copley Square Farmers Market has four days left on its calendar: Friday, November 13, Tuesday, November 17, Friday, November 20, and Tuesday, November 24. It's open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the Dartmouth Street side of the square, across from the Boston Public Library's McKim building. The market runs twice a week and brings in more than 30 Massachusetts farmers and food producers. No winter dates appear on its 2026 calendar.

The lighting has a tour this year

The city's listing for the Monday, November 30 lighting calls it a celebration of the park's grand reopening, six months after the ribbon cutting. Boston Parks and Recreation is hosting with the Friends of Copley Square, BXP, Sasaki and Fairmont Copley Plaza. H.P. Hood is the sponsor, with more support from Drake's Cakes.

The new item on the program is a guided tour of the renovated square. There are also arts and crafts, visits from Santa Claus and Rudolph, and performances by vocalist Joelle James, the Boston Children's Chorus and the Symphonic of Emerson College. At 6 p.m., everyone is invited across the street to Fairmont Copley Plaza for cookies and photos with Santa. It's an hour long and free.

Three nights later, on December 3, the trees on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall are lit right after the Boston Common tree lighting. The city's tree, a 45-foot white spruce donated from Nova Scotia, arrives on Boston Common around 11 a.m. on November 17.

Trinity's December, next to the new lawn

The lawn now faces Trinity Church, so the church's December concerts are right beside the most changed part of the park. Trinity Church Boston at 206 Clarendon St. has Handel's Messiah on Sunday, December 6 at 2 p.m. The program also includes Britten's Ceremony of Carols and Finzi's In Terra Pax. Candlelight Carols follows on Saturday, December 12 at 4 and 7 p.m. and Sunday, December 13 at 2 p.m. Tickets are sold online, and the remaining seats went on public sale October 15.

December 6 lines up well with Newbury Street. The city's Open Newbury Holiday Stroll closes Newbury to cars from Berkeley Street to Massachusetts Avenue from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and businesses are invited to set up outdoor activities and pop-ups. The rain date is December 13. You could walk Newbury in the morning and reach Trinity by 2.

The library side of the plaza

Across the plaza, the Boston Public Library's Central Library at 700 Boylston St. has the free exhibition "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" through December 2. It marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and was organized with Revolutionary Spaces. If you want to see it, plan on going before the tree lighting weekend is over.

New Year's Eve starts in the square

First Night Boston names Copley Square as its home for the free celebration welcoming 2027. Ice sculptures go up in the square and can be seen from noon on December 31 until 12:30 a.m. on January 1. Depending on the weather, some may still be standing on New Year's Day. The 50th First Night Procession leaves Copley Square at 6 p.m. for Boston Common, and spectators can join the walk. Fireworks follow on Boston Common at 7 p.m., with a second show over the Inner Harbor at midnight.

This New Year's Eve is the first since the fountain was restored and the perimeter sidewalks were finished in May 2026.

A few more stops on the walk

If you go out to Boylston Street, the Prudential Center has its own December schedule. Carolers & Cocoa runs Wednesdays, December 2, 9 and 16, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Boylston Arcade beside Eataly. Santa in the City is in Hynes Court on Saturdays, November 28 and December 5, 12 and 19, from noon to 6 p.m. The Prudential Tower's 31 Nights of Light runs December 1 through 31. Each night the tower is lit for one of 28 local nonprofits or one of three holidays. The Giving Tree is up beside the Concierge Desk from December 1 through January 1, and its gifts go to Cradles to Crayons.

For dinner nearby, three places opened this fall within a few blocks of the square:

Zhu, at 903 Boylston St. in the former Lir space, serves Chinese seafood and dim sum. Boston Restaurant Talk reported that it began a soft opening on September 28.
LPM Restaurant & Bar, at the Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton, is the French Riviera-inspired brand's first restaurant in the Northeast, as Boston Restaurant Talk reported.
Shuden Bar, at The Irving inside The Lenox, 61 Exeter St., is a Wednesday-night pop-up with hand-rolled sushi and Japanese small plates. Boston.com listed it as open on October 1.

Copley Square spent most of three years working around construction fences. If you'd like to talk about how the finished square changes the blocks around it, from Dartmouth Street to the Trinity side, David Gordon is glad to compare notes. Let's Connect.