Sintra Mágica | Sintra Lights Up: The First Day of Christmas

On 1 December at 6 pm, the square in front of the National Palace of Sintra will host the official launch of the programme “Sintra Mágica – Once Upon a Time, a Magical Christmas”, marked by the simultaneous switching on of the lights at the National Palace of Sintra, the National Palace of Pena, the National Palace of Queluz and the Quinta da Regaleira. This unprecedented gesture in the municipality, led by Marco Almeida, Mayor of Sintra, and João Sousa Rego, Chairman of the Board of Parques de Sintra, creates a luminous link between four of Sintra’s most emblematic monuments and signals a new understanding of Christmas as a shared ritual capable of uniting geographies, monuments and communities in a single symbolic act.

One of this year’s major innovations is the new lighting scheme for the National Palace of Pena, designed especially for this edition and open for night-time visits. For the first time, the monument adopts a fully scenographic design, conceived to highlight its romantic silhouette and its visual relationship with the mountain and the town. The lighting transforms Pena into a beacon atop the mountain, visible for kilometres, reaffirming the palace’s iconic role as a central landmark in the landscape — a beacon which, this season, becomes a luminous sign of celebration and reunion and can be visited free of charge on ten nights in December.

The National Palace of Sintra becomes the largest Christmas workshop

The square in front of the National Palace of Sintra, where the opening ceremony will take place, will also be prepared to welcome families and visitors. It will include a traditional carousel evoking the classic imagery of the season, a stage for a musical moment created especially for the opening day, a 16-metre-tall Christmas tree to be lit during the ceremony, and several stands offering continuous entertainment, themed activities and creative workshops for children. This festive environment aims to transform the space into a place of gathering without distancing it from its historical identity, proposing a balance between everyday heritage and public celebration.

After the lights are switched on, the public is invited to watch a video mapping show projected onto the façade of the National Palace of Sintra. This year, this historical palace becomes the largest Christmas workshop, where Father Christmas and his elves come to digital life, interacting with the architecture and with the public. Wooden trains, ballerinas, robots and rag dolls come alive in a display full of colour, Christmas music and rhythm, aiming to balance tradition, imagination and technology while remaining mindful of the sensitive nature of the heritage.

The "Sintra Mágica" programme runs throughout December, with highlights including the new scenographic lighting of Pena, entertainment in the Riding Ring of the Park of Pena , themed activations in the town center of Sintra and in the National Palace of Queluz — which will also host a video mapping show — as well as exhibitions and theatre performances, music concerts at the Olga de Cadaval Cultural Centre and Paço dos Ribafria, a nativity display and workshops at the Convent of the Capuchos, among other initiatives. These will be announced over the coming weeks at sintramagica.pt and will run until 6 January.

The opening event is free to attend.

“Sintra Mágica” is organised by Sintra Town Council, Parques de Sintra and the Cultursintra Foundation, with the support of SMAS Sintra, EMES and MEO.