Stories
The John Hancock CenterPhoto: Joe Ravi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Walking tour · Chicago

Chicago Christmas Walk: Magnificent Mile Lights to the Christkindlmarket

Magnificent Mile lights, State Street windows and Christkindlmarket

1 h 30 min9 stops2.7 mi

Start the walk

Stop 1 is free, no sign-up. All 9 for $4.99, refunded within 7 days if it isn't for you.

See the 9 stops

The 9 stops

  1. 1Start hereFree

    The John Hancock Center

    The Tower That Wears Its Bones Outside

    Free sample · 2:18
    0:002:18

    You're standing at the north end of the Magnificent Mile, at the foot of the tall black tower Chicagoans still call the Hancock. Tilt your head back and follow the giant X's climbing its sides, one stacked on top of the next, all the way to the twin antennas. Those X's aren't decoration. They're the reason this building exists.

    In the 1960s the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, which commissioned and financed the building, wanted something enormous on Michigan Avenue: a hundred stories, mixing offices and residences in a single tower. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill designed it, with Bruce Graham as designer. The structural engineer, the man who had to keep a hundred stories standing in the wind off Lake Michigan, was Fazlur Rahman Khan.

    Khan's answer was to put the structure on the outside. Instead of hiding the bracing inside, he wrapped the tower in a diagonally braced exterior tube. Those huge diagonals are the X's you're looking at. The building's skin is its skeleton, which is why the bones show.

    The climb wasn't smooth. In 1967, with the tower about twenty stories up, construction stopped. Engineers had found a flaw in the method used to pour the concrete in stages, and nobody wanted to stack another eighty floors on top of a doubt. Imagine standing here then, looking at a stalled stump of a skyscraper, waiting for an answer.

    Now look at how the tower tapers as it rises, wider at the bottom, narrower at the top. It's a mixed-use building, offices and residences under one roof, and the shape is part of what makes it read as a single, bold object against the skyline.

    And the name has its own twist. The insurance company's name came off the building, and its official address is now just 875 North Michigan Avenue. Chicago has politely ignored this. Ask anyone on this sidewalk for directions and they'll still point you to the Hancock.

    The street at your feet got its own nickname in 1947, when developer Arthur Rubloff gave it the name the Magnificent Mile. Your next stop is just down it.

    Walk south along Michigan Avenue, about 200 meters and three minutes, to Fourth Presbyterian Church, a stone church that holds its own right across from all this glass and steel.

The whole walk

9 stories across Chicago

1 h 30 min · 9 stops · 2.7 mi

Starts at The John Hancock Center and ends at Millennium Park and Cloud Gate.

  • Plays right here in your browser, or in the app
  • One purchase for your group, on up to 4 phones
  • Refunded within 7 days if it isn't for you

Plan your walk

    How long

    About 1 h 30 min for 2.7 mi with all 9 stories. Going inside the sites adds time.

    Start and finish

    Starts at The John Hancock Center and ends at Millennium Park and Cloud Gate.

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    Questions people ask

    Where can you walk to see Christmas lights in Chicago?

    Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile is lit from the Water Tower down to the river, and State Street has the Marshall Field's (now Macy's) windows. This walk links the two, then ends at the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza and Millennium Park.

    How long is the Chicago Christmas walk?

    2.7 miles and about 90 minutes with the stories, from the John Hancock Center past the Water Tower, the Tribune and Wrigley buildings and the DuSable Bridge to Cloud Gate.

    Does the walk include the Christkindlmarket?

    Yes. Stop 8 is the Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza, and the walk ends a few blocks away at Millennium Park and Cloud Gate.

    Is Chicago decorated for Christmas in November?

    Yes. The Magnificent Mile lights and the State Street windows go up in November, and the lights stay on through the holidays. The walk works any evening of the season.

    Do I need the app?

    No. After you unlock, the tour plays right here in your browser: keep the screen on and tap each stop. The free Stories app adds GPS auto-play, so each story starts by itself when you arrive, with your phone in your pocket, and works offline.

    How many people can listen?

    One purchase covers your group on up to 4 phones. Share the link from your receipt, or everyone can sign in to the app with the same email.

    Does it work offline?

    In the app, yes: download the tour on Wi-Fi before you go. In the browser you need a signal, which is fine on most city streets; open the tour once before you leave.

    When can I start?

    Any time. It is self-guided, so there are no departure times and no group to keep up with. Pause for coffee and pick up where you left off.

    Can I give this tour as a gift?

    Yes. Tap "Give it as a gift", type their email and a note, and pick the day it arrives (Christmas morning works). They open it in their phone's browser; you get the receipt.

    Can I get a refund?

    Yes. If the tour did not work for you, email support@getstories.app within 7 days and we will refund it.

    Who made this tour?

    Stories writes each tour from public sources, checks every claim against them, and narrates it with a synthetic voice. The sources are listed at the end of this page; if you spot a mistake, tell us at support@getstories.app.

    About this tour and its sources

    You're standing at the foot of the John Hancock Center on North Michigan Avenue. Tip your head back and find the giant X-shaped braces running up the outside of 100 stories of black steel, like a skeleton that forgot to put its skin on. Officially, the building is now just its address, 875 North Michigan Avenue. Chicagoans mostly still call it the Hancock.

    From here, you'll walk south through the heart of Chicago at Christmas, down the Magnificent Mile, across the river, and on to State Street and the Christkindlmarket. Under the lights runs one date: 1871, when much of this city burned to the ground. Everything you'll see tonight is what Chicago built afterward, and the lights are how a rebuilt city learned to throw itself a party every winter.

    You'll also meet people the city's story sometimes leaves out. At the river, we'll talk about Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, a fur trader of African descent who married into the Potawatomi. He is remembered as Chicago's first permanent non-Indigenous settler, and he arrived in a place where Native communities already lived.

    First, though, stay right where you are and look up again. This tower nearly didn't get past its twentieth floor.

    When you're ready, head south along North Michigan Avenue, with the Hancock at your back, toward the river.

    Written from public sources, every claim checked against them, narrated by a synthetic voice. Last checked October 2026.

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