If you were shopping in Santa Cruz last week, you might have seen a road train full of infants, grinning and waving, and shouting out “¡Feliz Navidad!” The road train belongs to the local bus company. It’s available for hire all year, but it seems to be pretty solidly booked in the last week of school term. The school where I used to work had a regular routine. We put…
Christmas trees are a newish thing here, although probably most houses have one now. The main traditional decoration is nativity scenes. Some just show the stable, but some public ones are so elaborate that they include the whole village, and it’s always a Canarian village. Obviously that’s historically inaccurate, but no more so than all the English nativity scenes where Mary and Jesus are blond. This one was on display…
The Christmas decorations are up in Santa Cruz, and most of the villages too. I particularly liked this Christmas “tree” outside a shop on the main street in Santa Cruz. It’s made from the dead flower stalk of an agarve plant. When I arrived on La Palma in 1990, Christmas trees were very much an innovation, and expensive. Most people had nativity scenes instead, and they still do. But Christmas…
Although Father Christmas does visit Spanish children, he’s a new arrival. Traditionally the presents arrive on the morning of January 6th, when the three kings visit baby Jesus. This is why the sales haven’t really started yet – Christmas isn’t over here. And on the evening of the 5th, they ride in procession through most of the major towns and villages in Spain. In previous years we’ve usually gone to…
One of the tall ships in Santa Cruz de La Palma last year For several years now, Santa Cruz de la Palma has hosted a Christmas market and a meeting of tall ships. This year, there are sadly no ships, but there’ll still be a flea market on Christmas morning, from 9 am to 2 pm. And a very Merry Christmas to all my readers. Here on La Palma, it’s…
I’ve just discovered a list of nativity scenes (in Spanish) here