10 Great Views of San Francisco's Union Square at Christmas

The big tree in the middle of Union Square is Macy's Gift to the City of San Francisco. It goes up every year and is usually lit for the first time on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Since 2011, the 83-foot-tall big tree is artificial - which lets just one more big evergreen stay put in the forest where it grew up.

Early evening, about the time this picture was taken, is a good time to see the Union Square Christmas decorations at their most cheerful.

The Union Square Ice Rink is open over the holidays, and into mid-January. Its hours include most of the day and last well into the evening, with 90-minute sessions starting every even hour. You can buy tickets on the spot — or avoid disappointment and get them online ahead of time. Get all the details about the ice rink at their website.

One of the biggest department stores in town - and in fact in the entire western United States, Macy's has lots of storefront area to decorate. The big, five-story entrance windows take a colored glow, while the smaller windows in the section next door get filled with sparkling lights.

They unveil their holiday windows about a week before Thanksgiving.

The multi-story entrance atrium at Nieman-Marcus is eye-popping anytime, with its gorgeous, gold-colored stained glass ceiling recycled from an earlier era department store called the City of Paris, which was built in 1896.

At Christmas, they put a big tree up. If you stop and look at it for a few minutes, you might wonder how they get that big thing into the store, but rumor has it that it's a faux fir, built around a modular metal frame.

From the Nieman-Marcus Rotunda Restaurant, you can have afternoon tea while checking out the top of that gorgeous tree — or watching the shoppers down in the square.

Some of the Union Square department stores do nice holiday display windows but don't expect the extravagances you might see on New York's Fifth Avenue. The windows at Saks Fifth Avenue are often the nicest ones around the square.

According to the San Francisco Visitor's Bureau: "an elaborate gingerbread house war is waged every year between two of the area's most historic hotels: The Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill and the Westin St. Francis on Union Square, just a few blocks to the south. These two vie every year to out-gingerbread each other in a friendly holiday spirit." This creation was in the lobby of the St. Francis.

A purist might claim that the Westfield San Francisco Centre isn't really in Union Square because it doesn't face the square itself, but it's only a short walk away and certainly part of the holiday shopping scene.

Check their website in November for a full list of holiday activities, including the lighting of their unique upside-down, crystal Christmas tree.

And while you're there, you can pose for a free holiday photo in Santa’s shop or with a holiday-themed backdrop. And if you haven't ever seen spiral escalators, it's worth a walk over there just for that.