String Lights are Secular! The Holiday Case for Year-round Placemaking

One of my favorite parts of the winter holiday season is seeing places decorated. The transformation of spaces is magical. What was once a dark city street is illuminated by string lights in the trees; a boring building lobby is made cozier with holiday garland. There is something inspiring about seeing decorations create beautiful places and, for me, that serves as a reminder that decoration, public art, events, and placemaking are important at all times of the year.

The case for year-round placemaking is more than making things beautiful. It also includes the importance of activating spaces with programming, making areas feel more welcoming to use, and investing in design choices that support community wellbeing all year. 

Placemaking starts with the idea that every space has a story to tell and builds on details like programming, lighting, and signage to tell it. Using those details, placemaking can create high-quality, beautiful spaces where people want to live, work, and play.

When I think of holiday placemaking, I think of lights, holiday markets, and greenery everywhere. While this form of beatification creates more welcoming spaces, the benefits of placemaking exceed beautification. Take Detroit’s Campus Martius, which took a spot in the city that marks its point of origin and transformed it into a holiday destination with ice skating, a tree, a holiday market, lights, and winter programming that entices people to use the space during the season, despite it being cold outside. Along with the space being beautiful, it is a true destination for locals to experience. The power of placemaking in places like Detroit transcends winter beauty and creates economic benefits, and provides community spaces when they are most needed.

During the holidays, artisan markets are a typical way to create this type of destination. Markets like the German-inspired Christkindlmarket in Chicago that transforms the Daley Plaza with holiday gifts, food, and programming. In 2021, the market drew 1.2 million visitors and added $196.2 million to the Cook County economy, including $103.2 million in direct economic impact. Along with the city-wide impact, holiday markets can also help artisans earn up to 50 percent of their annual sales in the last six weeks of the year. 

But artisan markets don’t need to be reserved for Christmas — they can be a powerful placemaking tool all year. Even the Christkindlmarket has a Christmas in July event that brings vendors together during the summer. By drawing on examples from holiday markets, it is possible to activate a plaza, park, or space that attracts community members year-round while still supporting local economic development. Imagine an Eid market, a summer solstice market, or something else that draws local vendors and supports the community’s interest in gathering in a space designed for them.

Placemaking can also bring a sense of wellbeing in a season like winter, which has decreased daylight and colder days. Public spaces, especially when they are activated with placemaking, provide a third space that can increase wellbeing by providing social connection and stress reduction. During the holidays, the activation of spaces through programming, lighting, and decorating help provide the holiday wellbeing. However, the need for winter wellbeing extends past the winter holidays and into the early months of the new year. By maintaining existing holiday placemaking, or by investing in sustaining low-cost activation options like pop-up fire pits or lighting, it is possible to continue to create spaces that are welcoming and help address seasonal blues.

Holiday placemaking can make spaces magical, and long-term investments to continue that momentum can create spaces that have benefits all year. String lights are secular and can benefit communities and make beautiful spaces long after they are lit for the holidays. Artisan markets can provide benefits to makers and buyers past the holidays. Bringing community together in welcoming spaces has positive social benefits and makes people excited to use spaces. Placemaking can transform a space. It is time we take the energy we put towards the holidays and translate that to year-round benefits.