Hotel Christmas

Every holiday season, I try to visit the major SF hotels and landmarks to check out the festive decorations. Here are some photos from Christmas 2025.

Entrance to the courtyard (glass-enclosed these days) of the Palace Hotel on Market Street.

Somebody at the Palace Hotel likes polar bears. This is near the check-in desk.

The Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill. Still my favorite. That's legendary local crooner Tony Bennett immortalized out front.

They added a temporary bar in the lobby of the Fairmont. Champagne or hot chocolate?

This year's fresh-baked 2-story gingerbread house.

Great old-timey feeling to the lobby decorations.

This is the lobby of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. Certainly more restrained than the Fairmont.

This is the lobby of the St. Francis Hotel at Union Square. The large bar is new to me; they used to set up the impressive gingerbread house here. This bar does not look temporary; I liked it better before.

The famous St. Francis Hotel gingerbread house. It had been moved from the lobby to the check-in counter area.

I cut across Union Square to see the annual Christmas tree and ice rink.

In years gone by, Neiman Marcus at Union Square would have a towering natural Christmas tree reaching toward the famous glass dome. But this is pretty cool too.