It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Alan Taylor
December 17, 2018
35 Photos
In Focus

With a bit more than a week left until Christmas, lighted displays, colorful markets, and Santa’s helpers are out in force. From Europe to the Americas and Asia, gathered here as an early gift, is a collection of holiday cheer and light wrapped up in 35 photographs.

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A man dressed as Joulupukki, a Finnish Santa Claus Christmas figure, reacts as he arrives at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport on November 29, 2018. Joulupukki was on a short trip to Hungary to celebrate Santa Claus Day on December 6. #

Attila Kisbenedek / AFP / Getty

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A girl looks at Christmas decorations at the Emporium shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 4, 2018. #

Jorge Silva / Reuters

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A Christmas tree is illuminated as people visit the traditional Christmas market at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic, on December 2, 2018. #

David W Cerny / Reuters

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People gather to see the holiday window displays at Macy's Herald Square in Manhattan, New York City, on December 1, 2018. #

Andrew Kelly / Reuters

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Belarusians dressed as Santa Claus and other Christmas characters take part in the country's first Santa Run around a lake in Minsk, Belarus, on December 15, 2018. #

Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters

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Thousands of people dressed as Santa Claus take part in the annual Santa Claus Run in Madrid, Spain, on December 9, 2018. #

Burak Akbulut / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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The Frenchwoman Laura Delsaux plays Christmas music in the street in La Paz, Bolivia, on December 15, 2018. #

David Mercado / Reuters

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An employee prepares James the Red Engine (right) before departing from Senzu Station during a preview of the Day Out With Thomas 2018 Christmas event in Kawane-Honcho, Shizuoka, Japan, on December 14, 2018. Lookalikes of Thomas the Tank Engine and James the Red Engine (copyrighted by 2018 Gullane (Thomas) Limited.) returned to the rails for the holiday season, running between Shin-Kanaya Station and Senzu Station. Launched by Oigawa Railway Co., the locomotives were decorated with their Christmas livery and carried about 1,000 tourists a day along the 23-mile section. #

Tomohiro Ohsumi / Getty

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Thomas the Tank Engine travels in a tunnel during a preview of the Day Out With Thomas 2018 Christmas event on December 14, 2018, in Shimada, Shizuoka, Japan. #

Tomohiro Ohsumi / Getty

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Saint Basil's Cathedral is surrounded by Christmas and New Year's decorations in Red Square in Moscow on December 11, 2018. #

Mladen Antonov / AFP / Getty

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Residents of a house in Magic Grove, Mosman, a suburb of Sydney, Australia, decorate their home with thousands of lights in celebration of Christmas on December 3, 2018. This Sydney home uses 35 waterproof boxes, 37 four-way power boards, 148 individual sets of LED lights (totaling 45,000 in all), 10 inflatable figures 2 meters high, and two large inflatable figures 6 meters high that took two weeks to prepare and install. #

James D. Morgan / Getty

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A participant and her dog, wearing Santa Claus suits, pose before a charity run for poor children on December 9, 2018, in the center of Budapest. #

Attila Kisbenedek / AFP / Getty

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A man takes a photo of lights set as part of New Year's preparations at a hotel in Antalya, Turkey, on December 14, 2018. #

Mustafa Ciftci / Anadolu Agency / Getty

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Harley Davidson bikers dressed as Santa Claus are seen in Zurich, Switzerland, on December 1, 2018. #

Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters

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Boats decked out with holiday decorations travel along the New River while participating in the 47th annual Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade on December 15, 2018, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. #

Joe Raedle / Getty

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Santa Claus reacts as Tami McEleney (let) and Patrice Conner whisper in his ears at the King of Prussia Mall in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, on December 8, 2018. #

Mark Makela / Reuters

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People walk through Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, Italy, under Christmas lights, on December 16, 2018. #

Awakening / Getty

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A large inflatable Santa Claus peers into a walkway of a mall in Bangkok on December 9, 2018. #

Romeo Gacad / AFP / Getty

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An aerial view shows Santa Claus decorating a 57-meter-high Christmas tree in a park on Tatyshev Island, located in the middle of the Yenisei River, in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, on December 17, 2018. #

Ilya Naymushin / Reuters

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A man watches fireworks during the Christmas parade in Panama City on December 16, 2018. #

Luis Acosta / AFP / Getty

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People look at the nativity scene after it was unveiled in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on December 7, 2018. The nativity scene of the Vatican this Christmas was built from sand that came from Jesolo, near Venice, and sculpted by international artists. #

Vincenzo Pinto / AFP / Getty

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Santa Claus performs onstage during Alice Cooper's 17th Annual Christmas Pudding show at Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, on December 8, 2018. #

Daniel Knighton / Getty

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Women dressed as angels wave to spectators as they hang from a wire during a Christmas market in the town of Úštěk, Czech Republic, on December 15, 2018. #

David W Cerny / Reuters

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A man dressed as Father Frost, the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, and a woman dressed as his granddaughter, Snegurochka (Snow Maiden), sit near a fire during a performance at Royev Ruchey Park in the suburbs of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, on December 12, 2018. #

Ilya Naymushin / Reuters

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People look at a booth with Christmas decorations at the Christmas market near the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady) in Dresden, Germany, on December 9, 2018. #

Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

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Santa Claus stands on the shore during the traditional Christmas-season swim in Nice, France, on December 16, 2018. #

Eric Gaillard / Reuters

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People attend the Light Festival parade in the main streets of San Jose, Costa Rica, on December 15, 2018. #

Ezequiel Becerra / AFP / Getty

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Jusuf Islami and his partner, Hana, kiss after he proposed to her while they were participating in the third Santa Claus Run in Kosovo's capital of Pristina on December 16, 2018. #

Visar Kryeziu / AP

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A woman poses with Christmas decorations at a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 17, 2018. #

Ann Wang / Reuters

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The Light Tram operates along the riverside of the Danube at Eötvös tér (Eotvos Square) on December 16, 2018, in Budapest, Hungary. #

Laszlo Szirtesi / Getty

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Ice skaters are joined by Santa Claus at the Rink at Rockefeller Center on December 14, 2018, in New York City. #

Spencer Platt / Getty

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Christmas lights in the shape of angels hang in front of the Houses of Parliament on December 7, 2018, in London, England. #

Dan Kitwood / Getty

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Richard Gamboa, dressed as Santa Claus, walks in an alley of the slum Cota 905 during the Santa en las Calles ("Santa in the Streets") event donating toys, food, and clothes in Caracas, Venezuela, on December 1, 2018. #

Marco Bello / Reuters

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People walk through the Christmas market in Tallinn, Estonia, on December 9, 2018. #

Ints Kalnins / Reuters

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A child greets Santa Claus at the CretAquarium in the city of Heraklion, on the Greek island of Crete, on December 15, 2018. #

Jason Tavlas / AFP / Getty

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