Best FREE Holiday Light Shows: Luminaries

Luminaries, the popular annual interactive lighting display, is back at the giant Winter Garden atrium in Lower Manhattan, as mesmerizing as ever.

Photo: Brookfield Place

More than 600 colorful lanterns suspended from the canopy change color and intensity at the direction of visitors, so the patterns are always changing. There’s also an hourly light show, set to music, and new this year, visitors get a chance to “conduct” the canopy.

It’s all especially magical fun for kids, who can change lights - literally - with a wave of their hands.

The exhibit features three Wishing Stations where touch-activated wishes can be sent to the canopy of LED lanterns above, activating a magical display of lights, colors and music.

Brookfield Place donates proceeds from every wish made during the holiday season to various philathropic organizations. This year, it is City Harvest, which provides food to NYC poor and homeless.

Canstruction Photo: Brookfield Place

Brookfield Place also hosts Canstruction each November, which is fanciful constructions made of various sizes of cans, also donated to City Harvest after the exhibit is finished.

Back to Luminaries.

Visitors are encouraged to watch light shows every hour and send wishes to the canopy above from the glowing wishing stations.

New this year is an experience called Maestro that allows you - or the kids - to conduct the canopy.

HOLIDAY WISHING:

November 29, 2021 – January 2, 2022
10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Illuminate your holiday wish by sending a motion-activated wish into the glowing lanterns above.

MAESTRO:

December 4-7, 11-12, 16-19, 2021
10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Show off your creativity using a gesture-controlled instrument to display your own unique light show in unison with holiday music.

LIGHT SHOWS:

November 29, 2021 – January 2, 2022
8:00 AM – 10:00 PM

View a special light show at the top of every hour, set to the following holiday songs:

Winter Wonderland by Michael Bublé
Silver Bells by Tony Bennett
Carol of the Bells by The Bird and The Bee
Let It Snow by Pentatonix

ABOUT THE LAB AT ROCKWELL GROUP:

The LAB at Rock well Group is an experience design studio that builds memorable spaces that engage the senses through strategic storytelling, immersive environments, and evocative content. Our architects, strategists, interaction and graphic designers, and content developers help forward-thinking companies create compelling brand narratives through a variety of mediums. Our content tells stories; our technology is interactive and captures the imagination; and our programming creates a reason to return again and again. Using story, architecture, and technology, the LAB choreographs unique, seamless journeys.

ABOUT CITY HARVEST:

City Harvest is New York’s first and largest food rescue organization, helping to feed millions of New Yorkers who struggle to put meals on their tables. As the city emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, they will rescue 111 million pounds of fresh, nutritious food and deliver it—free of charge—to nearly 400 food pantries, soup kitchens, community partners, and their own Mobile Markets across the five boroughs. They work alongside community partners to boost community capacity, expand nutrition education, and strengthen local food systems. For more than 35 years, City Harvest has always been there to feed our city—one day, one meal, one New Yorker at a time.