diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9f3ec2c839..c3f2e31792 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
 
-## UNRELEASED
+## [5.5.0] - 2021-12-20
 
 ### Added
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 17e186775b..4a13a8a96e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 
 ## Quickstart
 
-`pip install plotly==5.4.0`
+`pip install plotly==5.5.0`
 
 Inside [Jupyter](https://jupyter.org/install) (installable with `pip install "jupyterlab>=3" "ipywidgets>=7.6"`):
 
@@ -79,13 +79,13 @@ Built on top of [plotly.js](https://github.com/plotly/plotly.js), `plotly.py` is
 plotly.py may be installed using pip...
 
 ```
-pip install plotly==5.4.0
+pip install plotly==5.5.0
 ```
 
 or conda.
 
 ```
-conda install -c plotly plotly=5.4.0
+conda install -c plotly plotly=5.5.0
 ```
 
 ### JupyterLab Support
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ The instructions above apply to JupyterLab 3.x. **For JupyterLab 2 or earlier**,
 
 ```
 # JupyterLab 2.x renderer support
-jupyter labextension install jupyterlab-plotly@5.4.0 @jupyter-widgets/jupyterlab-manager
+jupyter labextension install jupyterlab-plotly@5.5.0 @jupyter-widgets/jupyterlab-manager
 ```
 
 Please check out our [Troubleshooting guide](https://plotly.com/python/troubleshooting/) if you run into any problems with JupyterLab.
diff --git a/packages/javascript/jupyterlab-plotly/package-lock.json b/packages/javascript/jupyterlab-plotly/package-lock.json
index 74eb2a0df8..20ee1971ee 100644
--- a/packages/javascript/jupyterlab-plotly/package-lock.json
+++ b/packages/javascript/jupyterlab-plotly/package-lock.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "jupyterlab-plotly",
-  "version": "5.4.0",
+  "version": "5.5.0",
   "lockfileVersion": 1,
   "requires": true,
   "dependencies": {
diff --git a/packages/javascript/jupyterlab-plotly/package.json b/packages/javascript/jupyterlab-plotly/package.json
index 6d9c7adf4a..eb5cb31463 100644
--- a/packages/javascript/jupyterlab-plotly/package.json
+++ b/packages/javascript/jupyterlab-plotly/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "jupyterlab-plotly",
-  "version": "5.4.0",
+  "version": "5.5.0",
   "description": "The plotly Jupyter extension",
   "author": "The plotly.py team",
   "license": "MIT",
diff --git a/packages/python/plotly/plotly/_widget_version.py b/packages/python/plotly/plotly/_widget_version.py
index 585af578fa..813edaa946 100644
--- a/packages/python/plotly/plotly/_widget_version.py
+++ b/packages/python/plotly/plotly/_widget_version.py
@@ -2,4 +2,4 @@
 # for automated dev builds
 #
 # It is edited by hand prior to official releases
-__frontend_version__ = "^5.4.0"
+__frontend_version__ = "^5.5.0"
diff --git a/release.md b/release.md
index 82a1dad677..07df8b0a0e 100644
--- a/release.md
+++ b/release.md
@@ -43,7 +43,6 @@ specified below.
    + Ensure you're using `node` version 12 and `npm` version 6 to minimize diffs to `package-lock.json`
    + Ensure you're in a Python virtual environment with JupyterLab 3 installed
    + Run `rm -rf node_modules && npm install && npm run clean && npm run build:prod`
- - This the last good time to install the extensions locally and check that everything works in dev mode
  - Run `git diff` and ensure that only the files you modified and the build artifacts have changed
  - Ensure that the diff in `package-lock.json` seems sane
  - Commit and tag but *don't push* until after everything is available on NPM/PyPI/Conda (see below):