An evening of Champagne, music and magic as Hyde Park Corner lights up for the season

Hyde Park Corner will once again announce the start of the festive season with a glittering tree-lighting ceremony and family-friendly activations that turn Centre Court into a seasonal stage. Expect soaring choirs, classical ballet moments, live jazz and amapiano accents, champagne tasting and immersive kids’ fun — all framed around a classic urban Christmas atmosphere designed for Sandton shoppers and families. Hyde Park Corner has run similar high-profile tree-lighting evenings in previous years, so the centre’s 2025 celebration continues a well-established tradition of combining performance, retail theatre and community activations.

This year’s public programme is billed to begin at 5:30pm on Thursday, 13 November 2025 in Centre Court. The live line-up advertised for the evening mixes familiar local favourites with prestige names: Swing City (led by Graeme Watkins and Nathan Ro) will deliver a soulful band set; the internationally acclaimed Soweto Gospel Choir will bring gospel pageantry; and Mzansi Ballet will perform festive extracts from The Nutcracker, Teddy Bear’s Picnic and The Bare Necessities — short, family-friendly sequences that give children and adults alike a moment of seasonal wonder. The event promises family activations (Christmas Fairies, an illuminated teddy bear installation), plus the opening of Toy Kingdom’s new Hyde Park Corner store and in-centre Christmas shopping features such as Nicholas & Co’s seasonal pop-up.

A standout attraction this year — and a first for many local shoppers — is the arrival of a Moët & Chandon personalisation pop-up at the centre, offering complimentary tastings of Moët & Chandon Brut Impérial during the opening evening and a personalised bottle service throughout the pop-up’s run. Moët & Chandon has been rolling out pop-up personalization experiences globally in recent seasons; these activations usually include tasting moments and custom labelling options ideal for festive gifting and premium shoppers. (See verification notes below for what we confirmed and what we could not independently verify about the “first in South Africa” claim.)

What the night will feel like

The programme is deliberately inclusive and sensory: jazz and swing to open and set an elegant mood; gospel choruses to lift the room; ballet to charm children and families; and champagne moments to give the evening a luxe, celebratory finish. Children can expect giveaways, interactive installations and a Build-A-Bear / Toy Kingdom activation in Poetry Court timed to the centre’s new Toy Kingdom opening. Retail experiences will mingle with performance, encouraging shoppers to discover holiday stores such as Nicholas & Co and seasonal displays across the centre.

Practical details

• Date: Thursday, 13 November 2025.

• Time: Public programme begins at 17:30 (Centre Court).

• Venue: Hyde Park Corner, Cnr Jan Smuts Ave & William Nicol Drive, Sandton.

• Entry: Open to the public (family-friendly).

• Centre trading hours: Mon–Sat 09:00–18:00; Sun & public holidays 10:00–15:00. hydeparkcorner.co.za

Why this matters for Sandton shoppers

Hyde Park Corner’s seasonal launch is a moment of civic ritual in Sandton: it turns a mall into a cultural meeting place, gives local families a low-cost night out, and creates an experiential platform for premium retail activations that benefit the centre’s trading partners. Past tree-lighting events at Hyde Park have combined the arts, civic visibility and retail theatre — a formula local media and lifestyle voices have repeatedly covered in prior years. Expect restaurants and new stores (including Toy Kingdom and seasonal Nicholas & Co) to use the evening as a springboard into the most important retail season of the year.