Every December, Bogotá transforms. Streets glow with constellations of LED lights, plazas turn into theatrical stages, and entire neighborhoods feel suspended somewhere between festive nostalgia and big-city spectacle. But this year’s celebration, dubbed Navidad es Cultura, is bigger, brighter, and more imaginative than ever before. Running from December 5 to 23, it invites locals and travelers alike to explore a holiday season built around creativity, community, and a forward-looking vision of the capital.

“This year, Christmas in Bogotá asks us to imagine and build the future we deserve,” says Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán, who unveiled a lineup of 670 activities and more than 4,300 artists. The result is a citywide cultural takeover – part art festival, part family tradition, and always a playground for the young and young-at-heart.

Following the Christmas Trail

For many visitors, the gateway into Bogotá’s holiday spirit begins with La Ruta de la Navidad, a curated trail of illuminated landmarks running through three major sectors: the historic downtown corridor, the sprawling Parque El Tunal in the south, and the bustling districts of the city’s north. This isn’t a gentle dusting of fairy lights. The 2025 installation includes 114 LED Christmas trees, more than 54 kilometers of miniature lights, and 1,655 decorative elements that dazzle both day and night. All of it is powered with a dramatically reduced energy load thanks to the city’s commitment to efficient, sustainable LED technology.

The season’s tallest marvel rises in Parque El Tunal, where Bogotá has erected its highest Christmas tree to date – a shimmering 56-meter-high tower of light with a 20-meter base. Surrounding it, the park becomes a walk-through holiday storybook. More than 1.3 kilometers of illuminated trails lead visitors through a world of giant glowing reindeer, oversized ornaments, a whimsical Santa’s garden, a luminous gift zone, and a charming Postal Navideña designed for festive snapshots.

At night, the park’s central plaza turns into a stage for a 360-degree laser and music show, performed every half hour from December 5 to 28. And this year, two colossal LED matrices – stretching more than 300 meters and totaling 200,000 programmable bulbs – transform the façades of the Palacio Liévano downtown and the Parque El Tunal cultural center, splashing them with color and geometric patterns that ripple like digital brushstrokes.

The Imagined City

The heartbeat of Navidad es Cultura pulses strongest at two iconic venues: Plaza de Bolívar and La Santamaría.

In Plaza de Bolívar, “Una Ciudad Imaginada” steals the show. This high-tech production blends projection mapping, live performance, soundscapes, and more than 50 artists to create a vivid dreamscape. Running December 13–14 and 17–23, the 35-minute performances—three each evening—draw thousands to the capital’s political and cultural heart. Here, Bogotá’s imagined future is cast across historic stone façades, offering a sensory journey through light, architecture, and shared aspiration.

Just a short walk away, Plaza Cultural La Santamaría will host “Más Allá de las Nubes,” a tender 35-minute theatrical piece performed by 80 artists. It tells the poetic story of a young girl and her cat traveling through Bogotá’s neighborhoods – an enchanting family-friendly work that blends dance, acrobatics, immersive staging, and soaring visual elements. With capacity for 10,000 spectators per show, it is one of the season’s most endearing offerings for visitors with children in tow.

Bogotá Belongs to the Night

No Bogotá Christmas is complete without the city’s most beloved holiday tradition: the Ciclovía Nocturna, an annual nighttime cycling celebration when Bogotá hands its streets back to the public.

The edition 48 takes place on Thursday, December 11, from 6 p.m. to midnight, drawing an estimated 2.5 million participants onto 95 kilometers of car-free avenues. Whether you’re pedaling a bike, cruising on a skateboard, or strolling with a cup of hot chocolate, the Ciclovía reveals Bogotá’s electrifying nighttime personality: impromptu music groups, couples on tandem bikes, toddlers being towed in light-strung trailers, and streams of cyclists coasting down Avenida Boyacá or Carrera Séptima under illuminated tunnels of color.

“The Ciclovía is a symbol of Bogotá – of encounter, health, and coexistence,” says IDRD director Daniel García Cañón. This year’s celebration also marks 50 years of Bogotá’s pioneering Ciclovía, now replicated by cities around the world. Fittingly, Bogotá will also host the 15th International Congress of Recreational Ciclovías of the Americas on December 11 and 12, welcoming global leaders for conversations on urban recreation, mobility, and community health.

More than a display of lights, Bogotá’s Christmas season feels like a cultural manifesto—an invitation to imagine a brighter city through shared art, open spaces, and collective celebration. From the sensory wonder of Plaza de Bolívar to the poetic warmth of La Santamaría and the joyful nighttime takeover during Ciclovía Nocturna, Navidad es Cultura positions Bogotá as one of Latin America’s most compelling December destinations.

As Mayor Galán puts it, “I invite everyone to enjoy this year’s Christmas programming and celebrate the end of the year in peace.” This season, Bogotá shines brighter—not only with a constellation of LEDs, but with imagination beyond the clouds.

The Teatro Mayor Julio Mario Santo Domingo has unveiled its 2026 programme, outlining 116 productions and 178 performances across opera, dance, theatre, music, circus and family shows. The announcement reinforces the theatre’s role as one of Bogotá’s leading cultural institutions, bringing national and international artists to audiences across the capital.

A highlight of the year will be the focus on Germany as Guest Country of Honor, with six events in music and dance that reflect that nation’s contemporary artistic landscape. The most anticipated is the arrival of the Berlin Philharmonic, which will perform in Colombia for the first time in its 186-year history. Led by Kirill Petrenko, the orchestra will offer two October concerts – its first appearance in South America in more than 25 years.

The 2026 lyric season builds on collaborations forged with cultural institutions in Colombia, Spain and Latin America, among them Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela, Fundación Juan March, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, Coro Nacional de Colombia and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá.

The season includes new stagings of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (El holandés errante), directed musically by Stefan Lano and scenically by Marcelo Lombardero, and Puccini’s La bohème, conducted by Andrés Orozco Estrada with stage direction by Pedro Salazar. The zarzuelas La tabernera del puerto and El Vizconde will also be presented.

Audiences can expect landmark choral works: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, and Furioso, a musical exploration of the mythical figure Orlando performed by countertenor Xavier Sabata and French ensemble Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu.

The programming in dance, theatre and circus highlights companies working at the forefront of contemporary creation. The Budapest-based dance troupe Recirquel returns with Paradisum, while international dance companies – including Germany’s tanzmainz, Australia’s Sydney Dance Company, the Ballet Español de la Comunidad de Madrid, the Ballet Folclórico de la Universidad de Guadalajara and Chile’s Ballet Municipal de Santiago – offer a unique slate of choreographic perspectives. The latter will perform Swan Lake.

The theatre lineup brings Spanish award-winning works such as El Monstre by Josep María Miró and En mitad de tanto fuego by Alberto Conejero. Colombian companies including La Quinta del Lobo, Grupo Móvil Flotante and La Casa de Atrás will present co-productions with the theatre. 2026 will also see the premiere of Destinitos fatales, Sandro Romero Rey’s tribute to writer Andrés Caicedo ahead of the 50th anniversary of his death in 2027.

Teatro Mayor will again take part in the programming of the Festival Internacional de Artes Vivas – FIAV Bogotá during Holy Week, strengthening its links with the city’s broader cultural calendar.

In its commitment to showcasing Colombia’s artistic diversity, Teatro Mayor will host the launch events of several major national festivals, including the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata, the Festival de Música del Pacífico Petronio Álvarez and the Festival de Música Andina “Mono Núñez.” International series such as the Festival de Fado, featuring Camané and Sara Correia, and Tango al Mayor, which will include concerts, masterclasses and a grand milonga, will complement the season.

Public-focused programmes – Teatro Digital and Cien Mil Niños al Mayor – will remain active throughout the year, expanding free access for students and encouraging arts accessibility across the nation’s capital.

Teatro Mayor operates as a public-private partnership and with its 2026 programme, reaffirms its role as a key cultural platform for Bogotá – one that connects local audiences with a broad spectrum of artistic expressions from Colombia and around the world.