Strasbourg's Great Christmas Tree, Place Kléber

Every year in late October a heavy haulage convoy enters Strasbourg at around five in the morning. On board: a fir of more than 30 metres and 7 tonnes, roughly a hundred feet tall, picked out one tree at a time in the forests of the Vosges.

For six weeks it becomes the most photographed thing in the city after the cathedral. Here is what happens behind the scenes on Place Kléber, a tradition more than thirty years old that the city presents as the largest decorated natural Christmas tree in France.

The hunt begins in spring

Few visitors realise it: the search for the tree starts as soon as the snow melts. Henri-Pierre Gangloff, of the French forestry service, has run this job for more than twenty years and spends days driving the roads of the Vosges massif looking for the rare specimen.

The specification is demanding: a perfectly conical silhouette, dense branches, no sign of disease, good stability, and, a very earthbound condition, a location a crane and a heavy convoy can actually reach.

Recent winners: a silver fir from the state forest of Saint-Quirin in Moselle in 2025 (31 metres, 7.5 tonnes, around 70 years old), a giant from the forest of Champ near Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in 2024 (32 metres, 71 years old), and a tree from Val-et-Châtillon in Meurthe-et-Moselle in 2021. The 2024 edition was the thirty-fourth tree of a tradition begun in the early 1990s.

From forest to square: a precision operation

• Mid-October: the felling, in the forest, followed by several hours of preparation before loading.
• Late October: the night-time arrival on Place Kléber, between 4 and 6am to limit disruption, then the raising by crane into a pit 2.5 metres deep.
• Then the refeathering: for seven to ten days, tree climbers nail branches, cut and kept separately, back onto the trunk to fill the gaps left by the journey. Yes, the finest tree in France cheats a little.
• Three weeks of decorating follow, with garlands and ornaments fitted by rope access technicians.

In 2025 the decoration was built around the Advent wreath and four symbols, a candle, a dove, a small Alsatian house and a heart in kelsch, the region's traditional checked linen, all made by local workshops and associations.

The lighting: the daily appointment

The tree is officially lit on the evening the market opens, in late November, and stays lit into the first days of January, well after the chalets have gone on 24 December.

During the season a light and music sequence wakes the tree at regular intervals through the evening, switching to a silent version late on. The best window to see it is dusk, around 4.30 to 5pm, when the illuminations come on against a sky that is still blue.

The Village du Partage, the tree's other side

At the foot of the tree, Place Kléber has hosted the Village du Partage since 2002: around 110 associations across 14 chalets in the 2025 edition, given over to solidarity in every form, from humanitarian aid to animal welfare.

The institution of the place is the Soupe Étoilée, made by Michelin-starred Alsatian chefs in aid of the HUMANIS collective and sold by the cup, with a deposit on the cup that you can leave as a donation. Strasbourgeois also keep up an older custom: leaving gifts for those in need at the foot of the tree.

It is worth stopping here rather than walking straight past. This is the one site on the island where buying something has an obvious point beyond the object.

And after the holidays?

In early January the decorations come down, and around the middle of the month the tree is pulled from its base. Its wood is then turned into wood chip distributed to the city's allotments and community gardens.

The king of the forest ends up as Strasbourg mulch. It is hard to be more local than that.

Seeing it properly

• The daily lighting sequence in the early evening is the high point: stand on the Aubette side for the full perspective.
• After 8.30pm the square empties noticeably. That is the hour for photographs without a crowd.
• Between Christmas and early January the tree stays lit while the chalets have gone: the spectacle without the crush, and the best-kept secret of the whole season.

Place Kléber is stop three on our map of the Christmas markets. For the rest of the planning, the complete guide and the dates and hours take over.

Sources

Official Great Tree and illuminations sheet (noel.strasbourg.eu, 2025 edition), ONF and ONF Vegetis for the selection and installation across the 2021 to 2025 editions, DNA and Actu.fr for the installation calendars, HUMANIS for the Village du Partage in 2025. Figures are given per edition and can change from year to year.