Back Bay's holiday lights are paid for in several different ways, and some arrangements are much more certain than others. Private donors pay for the Commonwealth Avenue Mall. The Prudential Center's displays are covered by BXP's spending under its agreements with the city. The Copley Square tree is a city event backed by partners and sponsors. Newbury and Boylston streets have no regular sponsor, so whether they're lit has depended each winter on whether someone agrees to pay. The proposed Back Bay business improvement district is meant to fix that last case, and as of the most recent reporting in September, it was still waiting on final city approval.
| Display | Who pays | 2026 status |
|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Avenue Mall | Private donors, through Friends of the Public Garden | Lighting set for December 3, 2026, 8 p.m. |
| Prudential Center and surrounding public areas | BXP, under its development agreements with the city | Most recent published guide is from 2025 |
| Copley Square tree | City Parks and Recreation, with partners and sponsors | Lighting set for November 30, 2026, 5 to 6 p.m. |
| Newbury and Boylston street trees | No regular sponsor | Most recent reporting is from 2025 |
The Mall Is Paid For by Named Donors
The lights on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall are the most secure of the group, and donors pay for all of them. According to Friends of the Public Garden, the trees have been lit for 26 winters. The display was modeled on the lit, tree-lined boulevards of Paris. It began with philanthropists Joan and Ted Cutler and then-Boston Parks Commissioner Justine Mee Liff, and later an all-volunteer group, the Committee to Light the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, took it on.
Friends of the Public Garden now runs it and says the display is "made possible entirely by the philanthropic support of individuals, foundations, and corporations." The lights run from early December to late March, from Arlington Street to Charlesgate. The Randi & Joel Cutler Family Foundation is this season's Beacon Sponsor. The Luminary Sponsors include the Boston Planning and Development Agency, the Sidman Family Foundation, and several local families.
The date is set. The City of Boston lists the 2026 Lighting of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall for December 3 at 8 p.m., near 15 Commonwealth Avenue, right after the Boston Common tree lighting. Last year the Mall was lit on December 4. The Mall's lighting depends on donors, but the donors are named and the date is on the calendar.
The Pru's Lights Come With the Building
At the other end of Boylston, the source of the money is very different. BXP owns the Prudential Center and 200 Clarendon, the tower many people still call the Hancock. The company says it spends $12 million a year on seasonal decor, security, and other public-space improvements under agreements with the city tied to the Prudential Center's development, as reported in a September 2026 Boston Globe Power Play newsletter.
Because that money comes from development agreements, the Pru's December program does not depend on finding a donor. For reference, the Pru's 2025 holiday guide listed a Winter Garden light-and-sound installation from December 4 to 18 and the tower's 31 Nights of Light throughout December.
BXP is also one of the presenting partners for the Copley Square tree lighting. The city lists it for November 30, 2026, from 5 to 6 p.m. It's free and hosted by Parks and Recreation, with Friends of Copley Square, BXP, Sasaki, and Fairmont Copley Plaza as presenters, H.P. Hood LLC as sponsor, and additional support from Drake's Cakes. The tree stands in the square that was recently rebuilt.
Newbury and Boylston Have No Regular Sponsor
The neighborhood's two main shopping streets have the least reliable funding of any of these displays. In November 2025, the Globe reported that lights would normally be going up on Boylston and Newbury around then. Tourism agency Meet Boston had paid for them the previous two winters, at nearly $200,000 each winter. No donor came forward for 2025, and the Globe wrote that the two streets would be "darker than usual" that season.
The record from that season is mixed. Meet Boston's September 2025 Holiday Lights Trail described 270 trees and 50 planters on Newbury and Boylston as decorated for the season, and it did not say who was paying. The Globe's report came about six weeks later. Either way, the lights depended on a single sponsor deciding each year to pay.
Open Newbury's December date hasn't been set either. The city's 2026 Open Newbury schedule says the December date will be announced later, in coordination with holiday activities. In 2025, the holiday street closure was on Sunday, December 7, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The District Meant to Close That Gap
The Back Bay Association's proposed business improvement district was designed to fix this kind of problem. A BID adds a fee to the property tax bills of commercial buildings inside its boundaries and uses the money to pay for neighborhood services. According to the September 2026 Globe newsletter, the proposed district covers about 50 blocks, including Boylston and Newbury streets. It would raise about $3.3 million a year for holiday lights, flower plantings, sidewalk power-washing, and outreach to homeless people.
The plan has grown since last year. In November 2025, the Globe described a smaller version covering about 40 blocks with a $2.4 million budget, under which "the trees would be lit up every holiday season, and flowers would bloom on Boylston Street each spring." The same story said the Association currently runs on membership dues and a fundraiser, with an annual budget of about half a million dollars that covers two staff salaries. The district would replace that year-to-year fundraising with a required assessment.
Forming one is hard. Under state law, as the Globe explains, owners of at least 51 percent of the district's assessed commercial value and 60 percent of its individual parcels have to vote in favor. Once a district is approved, every property owner inside it has to pay the fee. In February, Association president Meg Mainzer-Cohen told Banker & Tradesman that informal commitments had passed both thresholds for the 550-parcel district, and that the owners supporting it held properties worth a combined $7.2 billion.
Hotel owner Gary Saunders, chairman of the Saunders Hotel Group, has three properties inside the proposed district, including the Lenox Hotel and Raffles Boston. He told the Globe:
"I'm just disappointed BXP doesn't want to be involved. We tried to make the case … I thought it was moving in the right direction."
Why the Largest Landlord Wants Out
BXP's objection connects back to the Pru's lights. As the largest property owner in the district, BXP would pay the most, about $425,000 a year across 15 buildings, according to the Globe. The company already spends money on its own public spaces under the Prudential Center agreements. In an August 26 letter to city planning chief Kairos Shen, BXP's Boston executive Bryan Koop called paying both the existing commitments and a BID fee "Unjust Double Taxation." He also argued that the Pru's tenants, 82 retailers and 140 corporate offices, would end up paying the fee without having a vote.
In a statement, the company said it "is not opposed to the formation of a Back Bay BID … we do not wish for our properties to be included." City Councilor Sharon Durkan, whose district includes Back Bay, supports the BID. She told the Globe, "Lobbying against it is the part that I find inappropriate." State Representative Jay Livingstone and landlords including Ron Druker, Steve Samuels, and David Greaney are also among the supporters the Globe has named.
Boston has three BIDs already, covering Downtown Crossing, Newmarket Square, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway, and the Globe describes them as "largely peaceful affairs." Back Bay's case is unusual because its biggest landlord already pays for a public-space program of its own.
The Calendar, and the One Question Still Open
Two of the dates below are set, and one is still to come. The process that would decide Newbury's and Boylston's lights in future winters is still underway.
- November 30, 2026, 5 to 6 p.m. Copley Square Tree Lighting, free.
- December 3, 2026, 8 p.m. Lighting of the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, near 15 Commonwealth Avenue, following the Boston Common ceremony.
- December, date to be announced. Open Newbury holiday stroll.
- By the end of 2026. The Back Bay Association's target for collecting signatures from about 360 property owners, enough to send the BID to the City Council and Mayor Michelle Wu for final approval.
As of a Hoodline recap published September 10, the city had not ruled on BXP's request to be excluded, and approval by the Council and the mayor was still ahead. If the district is approved, holiday lights on Newbury and Boylston would become a budget line paid by commercial property owners every year. If it isn't, they will keep depending on whether a sponsor agrees to pay each fall.
This post is general information about a proposal that is still under review, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Property owners inside the proposed district should confirm with their own advisors how any assessment would apply to them.
For owners on Newbury, Boylston, or the blocks around the Mall, a district like this changes the cost of owning property here as well as what the street looks like each winter. To talk through what it could mean for a Back Bay property, William Montero is glad to discuss it. Let's Connect.
